A HISTORY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
1846-1917
BY JULIAN PARK
Copyright, 1917
by
JULIAN PARK
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF BUFFALO1
BY JULIAN PARK.
Secretary, Department of Arts and Sciences,
University of Buffalo.
I. THE BEGINNINGS.
In few instances are the initial steps which led to the
•creation of great educational institutions fully known. In
many cases no record was ever made of them, their interest
and importance not being realized when the events occurred.
In the case of the most of Buffalo's historic institutions
records have fortunately been preserved or else the institu-
tions are not yet so old that they have lost either their
founders or the second generation of their founders, to
hand down personal reminiscences, made permanent when
their importance is understood. The Civil War years were
not so turbulent as to prevent or postpone the founding of
several of those institutions of which the city is proudest —
the Historical Society, the Fine Arts Academy, and the
Society of Natural Sciences.
Buffalo's University reaches back further than any of
these, and the movement to extend higher education
throughout the city had its inception ten years before the
University was actually created. Like its forerunner, the
present University is fortunate in bearing not the name
of any single great benefactor — for such, during its first
seventy years, it lacked — but of the city which it serves and
adorns; and in this respect it antedates many other insti-
1 Thanks are due to the following for criticisms and corrections of these pages:
Chancellor Charles P. Norton, Dean Willis G. Gregory, Dr. Charles G. Stockton, the
late Dr. James A. Gibson, Philip B. Goetz, and Charles E. Rhodes. The author,
however, takes responsibility for errors of omission and commission.
4 A HISTOET OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
tutions which, though younger, have succeeded in hereto-
fore surpassing it in wealth — such as the universities of
Rochester, Syracuse, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,
and universities which bear the names of other cities in this
vicinity.
In fact the University of Buffalo is rather an anomaly
among educational institutions. For nearly seventy years
it was a university in name only, a collection of professional
schools with little unifying influence. The wonder is that
these schools could have achieved their creditable reputa-
tion and accomplished such scholastic results as they have,
wholly without the aid of any endowment. No non-sectar-
ian university in the country, so far as is known, has been
so peculiarly situated. If this peculiarity connotes a poverty
of equipment, it is true only in comparison with other
wealthier institutions ; if it means a poverty of intellectual
resources, there is no possible foundation for such a theory.
In fact, the poverty of the institution has been a standing
challenge to the best intellects of the city to compensate by
their almost gratuitous service for the otherwise unenviable
and difficult position of their institution. The university be-
came theirs in a peculiar sense ; for never have men of such
attainments been so loyal under such discouraging condi-
tions. If this led in some few cases to a feeling of egotistic
indispensability, it also bred a sentiment of persistence and
energy and quiet determination not to allow a thing so
uniquely theirs to perish or even in the slightest to de-
teriorate.
The motive calling for the creation of each of the depart-
ments of the University has been in each case a desire on
the part of the professional men of the city to extend oppor-
tunities for training in their profession to young men and
women of the community. Professional pride was thus the
compelling factor in providing these forms of technical
education — pride in maintaining the best traditions of
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 5
their profession and handing them, down intact to the next
generation and after that to generations of those yet to
come. This pride was of the finest and most unselfish kind,
because in each case it entailed a large financial sacrifice
on the part of the teachers in these departments.
But underlying and permeating this desire to extend the
facilities for professional training has been the realization
that the technical departments would not have been truly
proficient without the unifying influence which only a de-
partment of liberal arts can give. The establishment of
professional departments without this solidifying force is
like putting up the superstructure before the foundation
of the building is made. It is clear — as Huxley, in an
address on medical education2, once showed — that the
university may best co-operate with the medical school by
making due provision for those branches of knowledge
which lie at the foundation of medicine. He might well
have extended this fundamental observation to include the
necessity for the university's making proper provision for
the study of those branches which lie at the foundation of
all professional teaching. And so it has been that the
teachers in our University's existing departments have
been, of all those most enthusiastic for the college of arts,
the leaders from the very beginning.
It has been hinted previously that the present institution
is not the first university that was contemplated for Buffalo.
The speculative craze of 1836 is a well-known episode not
only in the life of the city but in the history of the nation ;
but for several reasons, Buffalo perhaps suffered more in
that disastrous year than most other cities of the country.
It was then the stepping-stone from East to "West. The
Erie Canal, recently completed, brought goods and immi-
grants in large numbers. Guy H. Salisbury, in Volume IV
of the Buffalo Historical Society Publications, gives per-
2 "Critiques and Addresses," 87.
€ A HISTOBY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
haps as interesting and complete an account of what that
speculative craze meant to the city as can be found. He
does not fail to point out the vast designs for the benefit of
the city made possible, apparently by the quickly gotten
wealth and the sudden failure of these designs by the as-
sudden loss of that wealth. Three of the more interesting
and picturesque projects which he mentions are the Perry
monument, which, on paper, towered 100 feet above the
pavement of what is now Shelton Square; the great Ex-
change, which, with a dome 220 feet high, was to occupy
the whole block of Clarendon Square opposite the churches
of Shelton Square; and lastly, the great Western Uni-
versity, or University of Western New York (the exact
designation not being clear), which progressed as far asr
if not, indeed, farther than the other ambitious projects,,
since this institution actually received its charter from the
State Legislature.
Mr. Fillmore, in his address at the first Commencement
of the present University3, pointed out that during the
summer of that disastrous year books were opened and sub-
scriptions made for the Western University, endowing six
or seven professorships at $5,000 each 4, and twelve or
fifteen thousand dollars were also subscribed to the general
fund. A building lot was even presented by one of the
city 's wealthiest men, Judge Walden, near the old barracks.
Although Mr. Fillmore does not exactly say so, it seems
clear that the name of College -Street was bestowed upon
that thoroughfare because it was to mark the western
boundary of the proposed campus, its other borders being^
North and Allen streets and Delaware Avenue.
There was nothing wrong with the vision of the men of
the '80s ; there was nothing wrong with their public spirit j
there was nothing wrong even with their common sense.
3 Buffalo Historical Society "Publications," XI, 45.
4 Nowadays endowments of professorships require at least $70,000, and $90,000
is a more general minimum.
A HISTOK7 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 7
Nobody could foresee the tremendous crash; which never-
theless must have been inevitable, so much so that President
Van Buren even called Congress together in extra session
in order that, as he said, they might devise a means to save
the government itself from bankruptcy.^
Mr. Salisbury asks, "Did no good grow out of all this
evil? There were, indeed, stately edifices built, innumer-
able stores, warehouses and 'mammouth' hotels erected^
canals dug, railroads projected, ships and steamboats put
afloat under the impulses of '36, which remained and were
of some use after. But what was gained by this precocity
of growth ? " In Mr. Salisbury 's view, looking at the pecun-
iary distress and stagnation of business which followed,
there was no gain, even remote, and the great university
project seemed to have died without hope of resurrection.
But not more than ten years after that sudden calamity
it was revived again, and this time permanently. One
reason for its revival was the advent during the '30s and
'40s of a number of men, mostly physicians, who, notwith-
standing Buffalo 's subsequent eminence as a medical center,
have not yet been surpassed in fame and public regard.
Frank H. Hamilton, Austin Flint, James P. White, Thomas
M. Foote were among the physicians who first brought
prestige to the city, and they, with sympathetic laymen,
were the founders of the University of Buffalo. It was
the physicians present at the first meeting who, after hot
debate, persuaded the other members of the group ta
attempt not only a medical school, but a university with
powers as complete and diversified as those possessed by
any in the land. The departments specifically thought of
at first were, primarily, the medical, and then the academic,.
5 "The panic of 1837 desolated every hamlet and brought woe to every home-
Want and failure stalked the land. Mills were closed, mortgages foreclosed, whole
towns swept off the map, fortunes vanished in a night. Prices became ridiculous,,
wages were reduced to the starvation point, and profits were the substance of
reverie. No subsequent panic wrought such havoc with the great masses of our
people as did the crisis of 1837." — S. P. Orth, "Five American Politicians," p. 157.
$ A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESIT7 OF BUFFALO
theological, and law departments. Fortunately, one of the
prime movers in the enterprise was at that time a member
of the State Assembly, and it was chiefly through the un-
wearied exertions of Nathan K. Hall that the charter, on
May 11, 1846, was granted to the first Council. Other and
more ancient universities have likewise been deficient in the
organization of these faculties without which, strictly
speaking, no university can have a clear title to the term.
The example which comes first to mind is Salerno, which,
though one of the most famous of medieval universities,
never established any other faculty than that of medicine.
Paris in its palmiest days had no faculty of law. And so
Buffalo, with only a medical faculty for forty years, his-
torically considered, is by no means a unique case, though
of a kind seldom met in modern times.
A number of years ago a dignitary from another State
once paid a visit to Yale College and introduced himself
as chancellor of a university whose name was new to his
host. "How large a faculty have you?" President Day
asked him. "Not any," was the answer. "Have you any
library or buildings?" "Not yet." "Any endowment?"
"None." "What have you?" the president persisted, and
the visitor brightened as he said, "We have a fine char-
ter. ' ' 6 And so, although for forty years the Medical De-
partment comprised all there was of the University, it was
known, not as the Buffalo Medical College, but as the Uni-
versity of Buffalo. Nevertheless, although it has possessed
full authorization, the institution has always been conserva-
tive in availing itself of the generous prerogatives conferred
upon it by the Legislature. Only in one or two cases have
academic honors been bestowed in departments of learning
not already organized.
6 D. C. Oilman, "The Launching of a University," 6.
A HISTOET OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 9
The men and women who have been recipients of degrees
from this University number the surprising total of 5,825,
divided as follows :
DEGEEES CONFERRED, 1846-1917
Doctor of Medicine 2,935, including 10 honorary
Graduate in Pharmacy 638, including 3 honorary
Bachelor of Pharmacy 353
Master of Pharmacy 26, including 1 honorary
Doctor of Pharmacy 6
Analytical Chemist 89
Pharmaceutical Chemist 3
Bachelor of Laws 710
Master of Laws 12
Doctor of Dental Surgery 1,043
Bachelor of Pedagogy 5
Master of Pedagogy 1
Doctor of Pedagogy 2
Doctor of Philosophy 1
Bachelor of Science 1 (honorary)
5,825
II. MEN WHO MADE IT.
Like many institutions of those days, the University was
first organized as a joint stock corporation and, indeed,
continued as such until as recently as 1909, though there
is no record of dividends ever having been declared.
Naturally, however, the founders did not establish the cor-
poration with any idea in view of financial benefit for
themselves. The capital authorized was $100,000 and the
charter provided that $20,000 of stock should be subscribed
within three years, and ten per cent, paid in cash, although
the public-spirited physicians did not stop there. During
the next year and a half they secured subscriptions from
130 citizens, aggregating $12,000. With it they bought a
-site on Main Street on the corner of Virginia, 100 feet by
200, and there erected the first building to be used for
10 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
higher education in Buffalo. The older residents will
easily recall this unique brown stone building of only two
and a half stories, with little spires at each corner, which
stood for so many years for all there was to the University
of Buffalo. It was dedicated on December 7, 1849.
It would be valuable, merely as a contrast between the
business and educational methods of those days and these,
to quote in full the charter of the University, but excerpts
must here suffice as evidence of the founders' intent. The
stockholders were to elect sixteen, of their fellow-share-
holders as their first Council and it was provided that no
one religious sect should have a majority of the board. In
addition, each of the several faculties, as they were organ-
ized, was to appoint one member to represent it on the
Council, and the Mayor of the city was to be also an ex-
officio member. The appointment of all University officers
was to be made by the Council upon nomination from the
several faculties. It is incidentally an evidence of their
confidence in the faculties, that no nominations made to it
from any department has it ever refused to confirm.
Section VIII defines its academic powers thus: "The
University shall grant the students under its charge such
diplomas or honorary testimonials as are usually granted
by any university, college or seminary of learning in the
United States . . ."
The roll of the original Council shows without further
mention how admirably the undertaking was supported by
the most representative citizens. The office of Chancellor,
in those days even more than now an honorary position —
practically his only duty being to preside on the Com-
mencement stage — was given very naturally to Millard
Pillmore, who held it until his death in 1874, not resigning-
it during his incumbency as President and consequent ab-
sence from the city. Judge George W. Clinton was presi-
dent of the Council until, upon his election as Regent of
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVESSITY OF BUFFALO 11
the State University, he removed to Albany in 1856. A
tower of strength to the young institution, he never, in Mr.
Larned's words," "in some fine and beautiful qualities of
genius and temper, had his peer among our people."
Joseph G. Masten, who succeeded Judge Clinton as mayor
of the city, was one of the original Council ; so was Elbridge
G. Spaulding, who acted a part of such importance in the
congressional and financial history of the Civil War.
George R. Babcock, another of the founders, was character-
ized by Mr. Putnam as "a man who might easily be taken
as a Roman senator in the last days of republican Rome,
when none were for the party and all were for the State. 'r
Very pleasant is the coincidence that on the site of Mr.
Babcock 's home should have been erected the building of
the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, which was
the first important gift presented to the University to aid
in the foundation of an Arts Department.
Orsamus H. Marshall, the second Chancellor, was also a
member of the original Council. A quiet, scholarly man,
disliking pretense and publicity, custodian of many estates
and adviser of a large clientage, Mr. Marshall is a figure
second only to Fillmore in the debt in which he placed
Buffalo's earliest institutions. The Historical Society and
the Grosvenor Library are notably the institutions to
which, as with the University, he was indispensable.
Nathan K. Hall rendered concrete services from the very
beginning, and later, as a Federal judge and Postmaster-
General in his friend Fillmore 's Cabinet, he became a figure
of national importance. James 0. Putnam, deprived by
his ill health of the brilliant career awaiting him at the
bar, has an honored name in the diplomatic history of the
nation as well as in the legislative annals of his own State.
Appointed by Lincoln consul at Havre, he subsequently
became, in Hayes's administration, Minister to Belgium and
7 "History of Buffalo," 197.
12 A HIS TOBY OF TEE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
during these periods, as at other times, the Council was
necessarily deprived of his service. As one of its original
members, the historical continuity of his membership, while
somewhat broken, none the less covers a long period, since
he resigned in 1902, being Chancellor at that time. William
A. Bird, surveyor of the boundary line between the United
States and Canada; Gaius B. Kich, a banker; Dr. Thomas
M. Foote, distinguished in literature as well as in medicine ;
Ira A. Blossom, Isaac Sherman, Albert H. Tracy — who like-
wise had a brilliant career in public life, State Senator and
Congressman, and who had, Mr. Lamed says,8 "few peers
among our people in sheer intellectual power"; James S.
Wadsworth, Theodotus Burwell, John D. Shepard, Hiram
A. Tucker, Orson Phelps and Dr. James P. "White, the
delegate elected by the Medical Faculty, were the other
members of that remarkable group.
A complete roll of the Council from its beginning to the
present day presents a list of citizens of such varied attain-
ments that it is profitable here to give their names with the
dates of their incumbency, but as each of them was added
reference will be made to any particular facts justified by
his length or his degree of service. Every name on this
list is an honored one in the city's annals and no more
adequate evidence of the importance, real or potential, of
the University to the city can be suggested than by repro-
ducing this roster.
MEMBEKS OF THE COUNCIL, 1846-1917
Millard Fillmore 1846-1874, first Chancellor
George W. Clinton 1846-1856, President of the Council
Ira A. Blossom 1846-1857
Thomas M. Foote 1846-1851
Joseph G. Hasten 1846-1856*
Isaac Sherman 1846-1857*
Gaius B. Rich. . . . 1846-1857
8 "History of Buffalo," 201.
* Exact dates uncertain.
A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 13
William A. Bird 1846-1853*
George R. Babcock 1846-1876
Nathan K. Hall 1846-1870
James S. Wadsworth 1S46-1850
Theodotus Burwell 1846-1857
John D. Shepard 1846-1855
Hiram A. Tucker 1846-1849*
Orsamus H. Marshall 1846-1884, second Chancellor
Orson Phelps 1846-1856
Elbridge G. Spaulding 1846-1897
James P. White, 1846-1882, from Medical Faculty
James O. Putnam 1846-1862, 1877-1902, fourth Chancellor
Frank H. Hamilton 1850-1862
Austin Flint 1850-1862, Secretary
Jesse Ketchum 1850-1868
James Hollister 1850-1886^ Secretary
Orlando Allen 1852-1877
George C. White 1855-1860
Aaron D. Patchin 1855-1859
George Hadley 1856-1878, Secretary
Sanford B. Hunt 1857-1870
John Wilkeson 1857-1887
Albert H. Tracy 1857-1860
Henry W. Rogers 1858-1872
Thomas F. Rochester 1860-1887
Timothy T. Lockwood 1863-1870
George S. Hazard 1863-1903
George E. Hayes 1868-1882
Julius F. Miner. 1870-1883
Joseph Warren 1870-1876
James N. Matthews 1871-1886, Secretary
E. Carleton Sprague 1877-1895, third Chancellor
David Gray 1877-1886
James N. Scateherd 1878-1885
Charles Gary 1879-
Sherman S. Rogers 1882-1898
Edwin T. Evans 1885-1906
George Gorham 1885-1905, sixth (acting) Chancellor
Frank M. Hollister 1886-1916, Secretary
Robert Keating 1886-1906
John C Graves. . . . 1886-1891
* Exact dates uncertain.
14 A HISTOB7 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
Josiah Jewett. 1886-1891
Matthew D. Mann 1886-1912, from Medical Faculty
Prank P. Vandenbergh 1886-1890, from Pharmacy Faculty
Eichard K. Noye 1886-1890*
Eoswell Park 1887-1914
Laurence D. Bumsey 1887-1908
T. Guilford Smith 1887-1890
Wilson S. Bissell 1890-1903, fifth Chancellor
Edmund Hayes 1890-1901
John J. Albright 1890-1901
Willis G. Gregory 1890- , from Pharmacy Faculty
Spencer Clinton 1891-1898, from Law Faculty
William C. Barrett 1892-1903, from Dental Faculty
Bryant B. Glenny 1897-1898 from Teachers' College
George H. Lewis 1895-1898
Charles W. Goodyear 1898-1906
Adelbert Moot 1898-1912, from Law Faculty
William H. Hotehkiss 1899-1906
Worthington C. Miner 1901-1903
Henry R. Howland 1901-
George B. Snow 1903-1912, from Dental Faculty
Stephen M. Clement 1904-1906
Louis L. Babeock 1904-
John Lord O 'Brian 1904-
John B. Olmsted 1904-
Eobert E. Hefford 1904-1914
Charles P. Norton 1905- , seventh Chancellor
Loran L. Lewis, Jr. 1906-
Edward Michael 1906-
Carleton Sprague 1906-1915
Arthur D. Bissell 1906-1917
Elgood C. Lufkin 1906-1908
William H. Gratwiek 1908-
Andrew V. V. Eaymond 1908-
Herbert U. Williams 1912-1915, from Medical Faculty
Daniel H. Squire 1912- , from Dental Faculty
Carlos C. Alden 1912- , from Law Faculty
Philip Becker Goetz 1914- , Secretary, 1916-
Peter W. Van Peyma 1914-1917, from Medical Alumni
Thomas H. McKee 1915- , from Medical Faculty
Walter P. Cooke 1916-
* Exact dates uncertain.
A HISTOBY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 1»
III. PHASES OP GROWTH.
The year 1846 happened to mark the most important
single event in the history of American medicine, for it
was on October 16th of that year that there took place the
first demonstration of the possibility of alleviating pain
during surgical operations. Hence when on October 16,
1896, Dr. Roswell Park, professor of surgery, delivered at
the University an address commemorative of the event,9 it
took on also the character of a memorial of the Uni\ ersity 's
semi-centennial and linked the destiny of the 'Medical De-
partment with the progress of American medicine in a
happy and significant manner.
No time was lost by the Council in establishing the
Faculty of Medicine, which, on August 25, 1846, was done
by the appointment of the following professors:
Charles Brodhead Coventry, M. D., professor of physi-
ology and medical jurisprudence.
Charles Alfred Lee, M. D., professor of pathology and
materia medica.
James Webster, M. D., professor of general and special
anatomy.
James P. White, M. D., professor of obstetrics and
diseases of women and children.
Frank Hastings Hamilton, M. D., professor of principles
and practice of surgery and clinical surgery.
Austin Flint, M. D., professor of principles and practice
of medicine and clinical medicine.
George Hadley, M. D., professor of chemistry and phar-
macy.
Corydon La Ford, M. D., demonstrator of anatomy, and
librarian.
Drs. Coventry, Hadley, Webster, Lee and Hamilton also
held chairs in the Geneva Medical College, an institution
which had an honorable career for a number of years, but
9 Park, "The Evil Eye," 351-380.
16 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
on account of its location in a small town could not success-
fully compete with schools in such centers of population as
Albany and Buffalo; and in 1872 the Geneva College be-
came the Medical Department of Syracuse University. It
had been established in 1834 by a faculty largely aug-
mented by the retiring professors of the defunct Fairfield
Medical School, chartered in 1812.10 The sessions at
Geneva being held in the early part of the winter, the
majority of the Buffalo Faculty could not assume their
duties until later, so that for several years lecturers were
giving the same course twice in the same winter at different
institutions. Naturally the question of accommodating
students came next after the election of a Faculty, and for
the first few sessions, lacking a building of its own, the
College held its lectures in the old First Baptist Church at
the corner of Washington and Seneca streets.
In the words of Chancellor Fillmore at the first Com-
mencement, the building was "fitted up at considerable
expense for the purpose, and the first annual course of lec-
tures commenced by this distinguished body of professors
on the first Wednesday of February last, which term is
now about to close. The whole number of students attend-
ing has been 72, 17 of whom will receive their diplomas
as Doctors of Medicine today. These are the first fruits of
this literary and scientific vineyard, and I trust they are
only samples of a more abundant harvest that is to be
annually gathered hereafter. If at the beginning any
doubted the success of this enterprise, or thought the
attempt premature, enough has now been done to dispel
every doubt and allay every apprehension. For never
within our knowledge has any medical college opened with
so large a class of students and closed its first year under
such flattering auspices. ' ' n
10 Syracuse University Catalogue.
11 Buffalo Historical Society "Publications," XI, 47.
17
Mr. Fillmore's position regarding the financial status of
an institution of learning, while probably no different nor
on any higher plane than that of most men of his day,
seems to us of the present to be at least curious. Appar-
ently no endowment was thought of for the institution.
The idea seems to have been that it could go on per-
manently with no income other than students' fees. As
to the source of equipment, Mr. Fillmore seems to have
calmly forgotten that any very large equipment was neces-
sary, although he does not deny that ' ' some assistance may
be required to raise the requisite funds to buy the land
and erect suitable buildings. But this accomplished," he
asks rather naively, "Why should not an institution of
this kind sustain itself? If professors feel that their com-
pensation depends upon the number of students they in-
struct, they will endeavor to acquit themselves in such a
manner as to increase the number; and if they are not
able to attract a sufficient number to afford an adequate
compensation, then I maintain that that is evidence of one
of two things; either the professor is incompetent and
should, therefore, quit his vocation, or is not wanted and
therefore should not be employed. It resolves itself into
a want of capacity to instruct, or a want of pupils to be
instructed. Neither of these can be remedied by State
bounty or testamentary endowments. The Medical De-
partment has thus far been continuing on the plan that
the fee from the students is the only reward for the pro-
fessor; and I am happy to add, with every prospect of
success." 12
He forgot this much, however: the possibility that in
their desire to increase the student enrollment and hence
their own compensation, the professors might let down the
bars of scholastic requirements and discipline and so lead
to speedy deterioration. Happily, the Medical Depart-
12 Ibid., 48.
18 A HISTOSY OF TEE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
ment, together with the other professional schools, has
never been confronted with this possibility and for no
other reason, of course, than the high-minded devotion of
their Faculties.
At the very beginning the same sort of argument for an
academic department which for the subsequent seventy
years was so persistently voiced was heard in no uncertain
terms from the Chancellor and in very much the same tones
to which the city has echoed ever since. The potency of the
arguments may be realized, together with their applica-
bility to the conditions of seventy years ago, as well as to
those of today, by quoting the closing paragraph of the
Chancellor's address of 1847 :13
This department being thoroughly and rightly established, I hope
next to see the academic department organized, and at the earliest
possible moment; and why should we despair of this! The time has
come when such an institution is indispensable to the wants and honor
of our city. I appeal to every father who has a son to educate. Why
should he be compelled to send that son to some eastern village or
distant city to give him a liberal education? Can it be that this
proud Queen City of the Lakes, into whose lap is poured the commer-
cial wealth of eight states, cannot maintain a single college! Are
our crowded wharves and glutted warehouses mere mockeries of
wealth ? No — our numerous and costly temples for religious wor-
ship not only attest our piety and devotion, but show what the enter-
prise and noble generosity of Buffalo can accomplish when its sympa-
thies and energies are enlisted in a good cause. Then let me appeal
to you on behalf of the University of Buffalo, your own darling
child, bearing your own name, and stretching out its arms for your
support. Will you see it perish, or will you step forward with true
paternal feelings, and minister to its wants, and raise it from despond-
ency to hope, from weakness to power, and from childhood to man-
hood? If you will, be assured that you will establish an institution
eminently useful to yourselves, which will become the pride and orna-
ment of our city, and for which you will receive the grateful thanks
and fervent blessings of unborn millions.
13 Ibid., 49.
1
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVESSITY OF BUFFALO 19
Unfortunately, the first minute-book of the Council, con-
taining a record of the action taken by that body from
1846 to 1855, has been lost, so that practically the only
events occurring during those years which are of certain
knowledge are to be found in newspaper reports. The
Council held, for many years, only annual meetings, the
chief purport of which was to confer degrees upon the
graduating classes.
It would be interesting to know the details of the erec-
tion of the first college building, but there is an excellent
description of the building together with the work of the
college at that time, in the Commercial Advertiser of Sep-
tember 18, 1849. The remarks that are there recorded
concerning the building indicate that it was excellently
adapted to the needs of medical education of those days,
and particular comment is made upon the dissecting room,
which, in spaciousness and adaptation to its objects, was
regarded as unsurpassed in the whole country. This, de-
spite the fact that the total cost of building and site prob-
ably did not equal the sum of $25,000. The location was a
favorable one, giving the College of those days something
of the facilities for clinical teaching which the present
college building enjoys. Adjacent to the building, on Pearl
Place, was the hospital of the Sisters of Charity, presenting
the best opportunities in the city for clinical instruction.
It is quite remarkable that the seven men who constituted
the original Faculty all remained in active occupancy of
their chairs for the first five years. Thus the plans and
the policy of the College were well crystallized and a foun-
dation laid for its continuance and progressive existence
for seventy years, during which time it has numbered
among its professors many of the men of whom American
medicine is proudest. The following list includes the
names, with years of access and exit, of those who have
held chairs in the permanent (or, as it was later called, the
20 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
executive) Faculty from 1846 to 1915. In that year a far-
reaching reorganization of the entire teaching methods took
place, with many changes in the system of instruction and
administration.14 It was accordingly a new era of the
College which began in that year (1915), although the
changes which took place were not so much in personnel as
in methods.
Access Exit
1846 James P. White, Obstetrics 1881
1846 George Hadley, Chemistry and Pharmacy 1851
1846 Charles B. Coventry, Physiology 1851
1846 Charles A. Lee, Materia Medica 1870
1846 James Webster, Anatomy 1851
1846 Frank H. Hamilton, Surgery 1860
1846 Austin Mint, Principles and Practice of Medicine 1859
1851 James Hadley, Chemistry and Toxicology 1878
1851 John C. Dalton, Physiology 1855
1851 Benjamin E. Palmer, Anatomy 1853
1852 Edward M. Moore, Surgery 1882
1853 Thomas F. Bochester, Principles and Practice of Medicine. .1887
1857 Sanford B. Hunt, Anatomy 1858
1857 Theophilus Mack, Materia Medica 1860
1859 Sanford Eastman, Anatomy 1870
1859 Austin Flint, Jr., Physiology 1860
1860 Joshua B. Lothrop, Materia Medica 1864
1861 William H. Mason, Physiology 1886
1867 Julius F. Miner, Special Surgery 1882
1870 Milton G. Potter, Anatomy 1877
1870 S. M. Eastman, Materia Medica 1873
1873 E. V. Stoddard, Materia Medica 1888
1878 Charles A. Doremus, Chemistry and Toxicology 1881
1878 Charles Gary, Anatomy 1889
1882 Matthew D. Mann, Obstetrics 1912
1882 E. A. Witthaus, Chemistry and Toxicology 1889
1883 Eoswell Park, Surgery 1914
1886 Julius Pohlman, Physiology 1889
1887 Charles G. Stockton, Principles and Practice of Medicine. . .
1889 Charles Gary, Materia Medica 1899
14 See page 74.
A HISTOKY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 21
1889 Charles Gary, Clinical Medicine 1911
1890 John Parmenter, Anatomy 1904
1890 Herbert M. Hill, Chemistry and Toxicology 1910
1899 Eli H. Long, Materia Medica and Therapeutics 1912
1900 Frederick C. Busch, Physiology 1912
1904 Herbert U. Williams, Bacteriology and Pathology
1905 James A. Gibson, Anatomy 1917
1910 Francis C. Goldsborough, Obstetrics
1912 DeWitt H. Sherman, Materia Medica
1912 Frederick H. Pratt, Physiology
Of several of these the length of their incumbency has
been quite remarkable. Dr. White served for thirty-five
years ; Dr. Thomas F. Rochester for thirty-four ; Dr. Moore
for thirty; Dr. Park (who succeeded Dr. Moore) for thirty-
one : Dr. Gary was in the service of the College for thirty-
two years; Dr. Mann for twenty-eight years; Dr. Stockton
•has occupied his chair for thirty years.
IV. NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.
Academic history is, naturally, made without a great
deal of publicity; and so the record of an institution of
learning is very largely a record of routine work. The
early years saw few, if any, additions to the Faculty and
few important accessions to the Council. Before the meet-
ing of 1856, however, two men had been elected to the
Council and thus broadened their interest in popular educa-
tion to include an intelligent interest in the facilities for
higher training. These two men were Jesse Ketchum and
Orlando Allen. Probably no citizen of Buffalo, certainly
none of the earlier days, did more as a private citizen for
the city's schools than Mr. Ketchum, who crowned his life-
long interest by presenting most of the site for the present
splendid Normal School. Mr. Allen's term of membership
on the Council extended for about fifteen years, during
which time he rarely missed a meeting.
22 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
The Medical Department has been distinguished in
respect to its advanced methods of teaching in two im-
portant directions. As early as the fourth session Dr.
James P. White, for the first time in this country, intro-
duced clinical midwifery into the college curriculum. This
method had been previously established in Europe, but its
introduction in America caused very severe criticism. So
bitter and pointed an attack was made upon Dr. White in
the newspapers, as to lead to a suit for libel, the result of
which was the acquittal of the defendant; but the trial
served to vindicate Dr. White and his method of teaching.
Dr. John C. Dalton, Jr., who was elected to the chair of
physiology in 1851, was the first physiologist in America
to employ the method of experiment on living animals in
his teaching.
Dr. Austin Flint, during his incumbency as professor of
medicine, made his noted observations upon typhoid fever.
His study of the epidemic in North Boston. N. Y., in 1843,
contributed greatly toward recognition of the nature,
source and means of conveyance of the infection of this
disease. Dr. Julius F. Miner, professor of special surgery,
in 1869 became noted through his advocacy of enucleation
of ovarian tumors, a method which has been universally
adopted. Of the other members of the Faculty Dr. Hamil-
ton achieved a national reputation as surgeon, teacher and
writer; Dr. Ford became one of the most noted anatomists
in the country, holding for many years, until his com-
paratively recent death at an old age, a professorship at
the University of Michigan; Lee, Webster, and Coventry
all helped to make the first Faculty a group distinguished
for intellect, one which reflected honor on the city which
called them.
As time went on these men came to be assisted by
younger practitioners whom they had trained, and the fact
that such physicians as M. B. Folwell, D. W. Harrington
A HISTORY OF THE UNIFEESITY OF BUFFALO 23
and "William C. Plielps were members of the staff without
holding chairs on the permanent Faculty does not, of
course, free the historian from neglecting to mention their
teaching abilities or their aid to the young College.
In the matter of improving medical education, the Col-
lege has been in the front rank in enlarging its curriculum
and adding to its corps of teachers. It was one of the first
institutions to favor a separation of the teaching and
licensing authority. While the proposition failed of adop-
tion at the time, it placed the College upon record and it
remained for one of its alumni and teachers, Dr. H. R.
Hopkins, aided by Professor M. D. Mann and Dr. A. R.
Davidson, also an alumnus, to urge and secure in 1883 the
formulation of a bill by the Medical Society of the County
of Erie, which, after due consideration by the State Medical
Society, was presented to the Legislature and, after re-
peated defeats and amendments, finally became a law in
1890, creating licensing bodies that should be absolutely
separate and distinct from the teaching faculties.
Beginning with 1856, the Council meetings assumed more
importance and interest than the merely routine work of
their previous gatherings. In that year it suffered the
loss of Judge Clinton, his place being taken by Dr. George
Hadley. Mr. Marshall succeeded to the position of pres-
ident of the Council made vacant by Mr. Clinton's resig-
nation, which meant his taking the place of Mr. Fillmore
whenever the latter could not represent the University,
leading naturally to his election as Mr. Fillmore 's successor.
Several important changes took place in the Faculty,
Austin Flint being elected to a new chair, that of clinical
medicine and pathology, taking the place of Dr. Lee. Dr.
Edward M. Moore of Rochester also assumed the duties of
a new chair, being designated professor of surgical anatomy
and pathology. A third new chair was created by the
election of Dr. Sanford B. Hunt as professor of descriptive
UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO, MEDICAL FACULTY, 1861.
DR. HADI..EY, DR. ROCHESTER, DR. MASOX,
DR. WHITE DR. MOORE, DR. EASTMAN, DR. LEE.
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 25
1858, nine; in 1859, twelve, beginning with, which year the
graduating classes commenced a satisfactory and generally
consistent increase in numbers. The last honorary degree
of Doctor of Medicine was conferred in 1879 upon Charles
A. Doremus, who had entered the Faculty not as a practic-
ing physician but as professor of chemistry. The degree
of M. D., as an honorary distinction, has been but infre-
quently granted by Buffalo, as by all American universi-
ties, which have generally preferred to honor physicians
of prestige by giving them a degree which they did not
already possess, such as Doctor of Science or Doctor of
Laws. Yale honored Dr. Park with the LL. D. degree.
The same honor has been conferred on several present
members of the faculties, Charles B. Wheeler having
received it from Williams and John Lord 0 'Brian from
Hobart.
V. EXPANDING ACTIVITIES.
The first active effort to bring to a realization the fervid
argument of Millard Fillmore for the addition of an aca-
demic department seems not to have been begun until
1862, when two committees of the Council were appointee!
to consider and report upon the creation of departments of
law and of liberal arts. Here is a further example of
Buffalo's refusal to allow the stress and strain of civil war
to interfere with projects for her intellectual advancement.
Evidently, however, though the war did not interfere with
the foundation of several institutions, it was decided that
the time was not propitious for the expansion of the Uni-
versity. The reports of these two committees apparently
were made orally, since there is no evidence of their having
been recorded; but the idea of University expansion was
in the air and received repeated impetus from then on. In
1868 the addition of a dental department was discussed
for the first time and the first step actually taken, since it
was determined to leave the organization of a college of
28 A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
dentistry to the Medical Faculty, where it rested for so
many years that it was thought to have sunk to its final
repose.
In 1867 Dr. Julius F. Miner was elected professor of
special surgery and three years later was made dean, sue-,
ceeding Dr. James Hadley, who had been promoted from
registrar to dean in 1867, but returned to his old position
in 1870. Dr. Miner served as dean until 1875, when Dr.
Milton G. Potter succeeded to the office. In 1877 Dr.
Thomas F. Rochester, who to his commanding personality
joined the sureness of diagnosis and the rare knowledge and
skill in practice which gave him a dominating position
among Buffalo's medical men, was again made dean of the
Faculty as he had been dean of his profession since Dr.
"White's death, serving until his decease in 1887. Dr.
Rochester belongs perhaps to the second generation of the
Faculty, the first comprising the founders, White, Flint,
Hamilton, Hadley, and the third, men like Park, Stockton
(still teaching), Gary, and Mann. Happily the fourth
"generation," worthy successors of their forerunners, are
actively teaching, and uphold and transmit intact the old
ideals.
Both James Hadley and Potter died in 1878, a loss
doubly severe, necessitating a partial reorganization of the
Faculty. After a short interval Dr. Hadley was succeeded
as secretary of the Faculty by Charles Gary, who thus
began, in 1879, a service in many capacities. The same
year he began his teaching as professor of anatomy, but in
1889 changed his chair to that of materia medica, adding
that of clinical medicine. In 1899 he gave up the chair
of materia medica but continued as professor of clinical
medicine until 1911, when he was made professor emeritus
— a service in active teaching totalling thirty-two years.
The Council also elected him to membership in 1879, a con-
nection which he has ever since retained, and for many
A HISTOSY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 27
years during the thirty-seven of his membership he has
been the senior member, the only one to note the expansion
of the University as each of the other five departments vras
added.
Nothing in the University's charter had prevented the
entrance of women students, but no woman was graduated
until 1876, when the degree was conferred upon Dr. Mary
B. Moody, now of Los Angeles, California, who has retained
a lively interest in her alma mater despite the years and
the distance which separate her.
In 1877 the Council suffered several severe losses by
death ; but the places of those who died, George R. Babcock,
Orlando Allen, and Joseph Warren, were filled by three
men, two of whom, Messrs. Sprague and Putnam, subse-
quently became Chancellors of the University; and the
third was David Gray, whose fame Buffalo cherishes as
editor and poet.
During the two decades from 1870 to 1890 the scope and
method of medical education were so changed by the rapid
progress in medical science as to require extension of the
college course from two years of five months each to three
years of six months each. The birth and development of
the science of bacteriology, the need of more practical
training in pathology and chemistry, and of a more
accurate knowledge of anatomy and histology, all de-
manded largely increased facilities not only in material
equipment but in teaching.
During the eight years from 1882 to 1890 the governing
Faculty of the Medical Department was completely
changed, not one chair being occupied in 1890 by the in-
cumbent of nine years before. Six new men had been
called to Faculty positions and one had been transferred
to another chair. During this time also occurred an en-
largement of the teaching staff by the appointment of
adjunct, associate and clinical professors, with assistants
28 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
and instructors in the laboratory and recitation courses.
A Spring course was in operation during the years 1884 to
1893. It consisted of eight weeks of supplementary and
special instruction given largely by the members of the
adjunct Faculty. It was regarded as an excellent feature
but was superseded by lengthening the regular session to
seven months and shortly thereafter to nine months for
each of the four years.
The first of these changes in the teaching staff brought
Matthew D. Mann, M. A., M. D., into the Faculty as pro-
fessor of obstetrics, beginning a connection which, as pro-
fessor and later as dean, was to give the institution the
impress of an executive ability and a rapidly increasing
reputation as surgeon and author, which did not terminate
with his resignation in 1911, for he has continued as pro-
fessor emeritus. He became secretary of the Faculty in
1882 and was made dean in 1887. In 1882 another addi-
tion was made in giving the chair of chemistry to Rudolph
A. Witthaus, M. A., M. D., of New York, taking the place
of Dr. Doremus, who was called to New York. Dr. Witt-
haus died in 1916, having achieved a national reputation.
If the Faculty was strengthened by these two appoint-
ments it was immeasurably weakened by the death in 1881
of Dr. James P. "White, the last of the founders, a tower of
strength for decades to his University and his city. His
place in the Council was taken by Sherman S. Rogers. In
the same year Dr. Rochester was made Vice- Chancellor of
the University, an office purely honorary on account of the
assiduity and devotion of Mr. Marshall. The next year the
chair of surgery was made vacant through the retirement
of that Nestor of surgeons and unequaled teacher, Edward
M. Moore, and the disability of his brilliant colleague,
Julius F. Miner. In the words of Dr. Stockton,13 "to find
an adequate successor of these men started a canvass of
15 Park, "Selected Papers," p. XL
29
America, for only one having the topmost qualifications
could hope to fill the gap. An appeal to Chicago by Dr.
Rochester brought the assurance from Professor Moses
Gunn that Roswell Park stood out as the one whose ability
would satisfy every need"; and so in June, 1883. he was
called from Rush Medical College to become professor of
surgery. ' ' His advent in Buffalo was opportune ; it was a
transitional period from old to new concepts in pathology
at the threshold of modern surgery. Together with Mann
he re-educated the local medical profession and advanced
immeasurably through his sound pathology, novel teaching,
operative skill and spreading fame, the reputation of the
Medical School."
By those outside the Faculty Dr. Park's appointment
was not greeted with particular satisfaction. The Buffalo
Medical Journal, which was founded in the same year as
the University by one of the founders of the latter, Austin
Flint, at this time was somewhat unfriendly to the Medical
Department, being termed the unofficial organ of the rival
institution, the Medical Department of Niagara University ;
while the so-called organ of the University of Buffalo was
the Medical Press of Western New York, edited by Dr.
Park with a staff consisting principally of members of the
Faculty. An editorial in the Buffalo Medical Journal for
August, 1883, states that "Professor Moore's resignation is
a loss to the profession of this city as well as to the College.
It is but fair to say of him that he is recognized as the
ablest professor of surgery in this country. . . . We
learn that Dr. Roswell Park of Chicago has been appointed
. . . in the place thus vacated. We fail to ascertain,
after repeated inquiries in surgical circles, that the new
appointee brings to this responsible position any extensive
experience or reputation." There was much more in this
strain, but it was not long before the "rival" journal recog-
nized in Dr. Park a man with whom it was hard to be an
30 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
enemy, but who, if antagonized, was an indomitable fighter.
Happily the Buffalo Medical Journal soon changed its atti-
tude toward the College, and for many years, especially
under the editorship of Dr. A. L. Benedict, has shown
most helpful friendliness.
In 1884 the University suffered the loss by death of its
Chancellor, Mr. Marshall, who for thirty-eight years, ten
of them as Chancellor, had been assiduous in his devotion.
He was succeeded by E. Carleton Sprague. With 1886 a
new era was ushered in, which may perhaps be summed up
by saying that that year marked the first real step toward
changing the institution from a medical school to a real
university. The Council had been rejuvenated and the
new blood added this year was contributed by such inter-
ested and enthusiastic men as Robert Keating, John C.
Graves, Josiah Jewett and Frank M. Hollister, the latter
of whom took his father's place and was promptly elected
secretary, retaining that position for thirty years, until his
death.
If, however, at the beginning of that year one had re-
marked that the University was about to expand and pros-
per as never before, he would have been derided as a false
prophet. There was even discouragement among those
responsible for the government of the University as it
then existed. This is shown by the fact that the visit of
the president of Cornell University, Charles K. Adams, as
the Commencement speaker suggested to some the desira-
bility of asking Cornell to take over the local medical
school as its department of medicine. The Buffalo Courier
on April 8, 1886, published an editorial, written by one of
of the Buffalo Faculty, in which among other things it
was remarked that "attention has already been called to
how much the Medical Faculty have done for Buffalo and
how little Buffalo has done for them. . . . "We should
note with feelings of congratulation that Cornell has ab-
A HISTORY OF IRE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 31
sorbed that which Buffalo has failed to erect — its hypo-
thetical University — and has honored itself by uniting
with itself a most meritorious professional school." This
does not mean, as it might seem to do, that the Medical
School no longer commanded the loyal support of its
Faculty. Pessimism existed only so far as University
expansion was concerned. The existence of the Medical
School was assured and the desire was to place it on a
firmer foundation by merging it with a university of large
endowment. The question of affiliating one or more of the
professional departments with Cornell came up later in
connection with the Law School, but both problems were
solved without their having reached a very definite stage
of negotiation.
It was at this same Commencement meeting of the Coun-
cil that a committee was appointed to investigate the feasi-
bility of creating a law department. This committee was
composed of Messrs. Sprague, Putnam, Gorham and Drs.
Mann and Gary from the Council, together with Messrs.
Ansley Wilcox and the late James F. Gluck from the Erie
County Bar. The report of this committee indicated that
for two reasons the project had best be postponed, the first
being the difficulty of finding a man of the proper legal
attainments who would give up the time necessary to
organize the school; and the second being the possibility,
though no longer the probability, of the creation by Cor-
nell of its law school in Buffalo. Curiously enough, how-
ever, this adverse decision did not prevent the establish-
ment in 1887, the same year in which this report was made
to the Council, of the Buffalo Law School, which imme-
diately became affiliated with Niagara University and re-
mained the law department of that institution until 1891.
when it became the Department of Law of the University
of Buffalo.
32 A HISTOKY OF THE UNIVEBSITY OF BUFFALO
VI. DEPARTMENTAL DEVELOPMENT.
The College of Pharmacy.
Conditions were more favorable for the addition of the
second department of the University, the College of Phar-
macy, and on March 8, 1886, the Council authorized this
addition with little debate or discussion. No college of
pharmacy was at that time in existence nearer to Buffalo
than Cincinnati and the pharmacists of the community had
long been insistent that the evident need for training in
this subject should be supplied in connection with the work
of the Medical School. After Dr. F. P. Vandenbergh,
adjunct professor of chemistry in the Medical Department,
had, upon its invitation, addressed to the Council a memor-
ial upon the advisability of establishing the new depart-
ment, the Pharmaceutical Faculty was immediately created
with the following incumbents : R. A. Witthaus, M.A., M.D.,
professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and toxicology;
E. V. Stoddard, M. A., M. D., professor of materia medica ;
Willis G. Gregory, M. D., Ph. G., professor of pharmacy
and director of the pharmaceutical laboratory ; D. S. Kelli-
cott, Ph. D., professor of microscopy ; F. P. Vandenbergh,
B. S., M. D., professor of general and analytical chemistry.
Professor Kellicott was chosen dean of the Faculty, being
succeeded after two years by Dr. Stoddard, and in 1890 by
Dr. Gregory, who is still [1917] dean and professor of
pharmacy.
Several Faculty changes occurred during the first five
years. After two years Professor Kellicott resigned his
chair, having been called to the Ohio State University, and
was succeeded by the late Ernest Wende, B. S., M. D. In
1889 Professor Stoddard and Professor Witthaus resigned
their positions and the instruction in chemistry was then
entirely given to the existing chair occupied by Professor
Vandenbergh. Dr. Stoddard was succeeded by Eli H.
Long, M. D., and at the same time the chair of pharmacog-
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 33
nosy was added with John R. Gray, M. D., as the incum-
bent. Dr. Gray retired in 1912, being succeeded by Frank
E. Lock, M. D., Phar. M., who served until 1916. In 1890
Professor Vandenbergh resigned the chair of chemistry and
was succeeded by Herbert M. Hill, Ph. D., now city chemist.
Albert P. Sy, Ph. D., succeeded Dr. Hill as head of the
chemistry department in both the Pharmacy and Medical
Schools in 1910.
The Faculty of Pharmacy has seen very few changes in
the thirty years of its existence. Dean Gregory has said
that during his connection with the College (beginning
with its establishment) he has been able to recall but one
or two instances where any procedure taken by the Faculty
has not been unanimously taken, indicating a unity of pur-
pose and harmony of action rare in academic circles and
possible only in small bodies. Laboratory teaching has
been a prominent feature in the work of the College from
the beginning, about half the instruction being of this prac-
tical nature. During the first five and one-half years the
sessions were held in the Medical Department's old build-
ing, but this structure soon became inadequate not only
for the Medical but for the Pharmacy Department, and
upon the completion of the High Street building, the Col-
lege of Pharmacy was therein given abundant facilities for
every branch of instruction. The first session opened Sep-
tember 20, 1886, with thirty-eight students enrolled.
Chancellor Sprague presided at the opening exercisesr
which were attended by the Mayor and many other digni-
taries, the address of the day being delivered by Clay W.
Holmes of Elmira, secretary of the State Pharmaceutical
Association. His address was on "The Nobility of Phar-
macy as a Profession," which proved to be an interesting-
outline of pharmaceutical history, closing by drawing a
sharp distinction between the mere druggist and the
trained, scholarly pharmacist, for whom adequate facili-
34 A EISTOEY OF THE TJN1VEESITY OF BUFFALO
ties were now available for the first time in this part of
the country.
The new College, for the time being, was placed on the
same financial basis as the Medical School, Mr. Fillinore's
ideas on this point still being accepted — more because
there was in Buffalo no other practical basis to maintain a
college than because they were approved. This method did
not always work out to the benefit of the Faculty, as those
hostile to the institution were fond of alleging. As one
professor put it: "When there is any money left over, it
is divided among the Faculty ; when there is a deficit, that
is divided too. Last year (i. e., 1884-5) repairs and im-
provements costing $3,500 were made, which came from the
pockets of the seven men of the Executive Faculty."
The only degree conferred by the College up to 1897 was
that of Graduate in Pharmacy, but in 1895 a departure
was made by the establishment of an advanced course of
study which should lead to the degree of Master of Phar-
macy. This was designed for the benefit of students of
ability who desired to devote their whole time to study,
instead of combining college attendance with daily work
in a pharmacy. In addition to these two degrees that of
Pharmaceutical Chemist is conferred, also for post-graduate
work, of one year.
It was the Faculty of Pharmacy which first offered in-
struction in a course most of the subjects in which are
generally counted in other institutions towards the degree
of B. S., and hence in a way this Faculty anticipated the
establishment of the Arts Department. Necessarily, most
of the studies in the Pharmacy Department (especially
those in the Ph. G. course, of only two years) are of a
special nature, fitting the student for the immediate prac-
tice of his profession, but in the three-year course leading
to the degree of Analytical Chemist, which was established
in 1906, the added year makes possible the inclusion of a
A HISTORY OF THE UNIFSMSITJ OF BUFFALO 35
number of subjects which broaden the student culturally.
French, German, geology, physics and others are the sub-
jects which, together with a large amount of the different
kinds of chemistry and allied courses, make possible some
comparison of this A. C. degree with the B. S. of other
scientific institutions. Training in professional schools is
not all narrow, just as more than half of the subjects pur-
sued at West Point have no exclusive bearing on the
soldier's profession.
In 1916-17 the Faculty of Pharmacy was constituted as
follows : Willis G. Gregory, M. D., Ph. G., dean and pro-
fessor of pharmacy ; Albert P. Sy, M. S., Ph. D., professor
of chemistry ; Eli H. Long, M. D., professor of toxicology,
and recording secretary ; Richard F. Morgan, Ph. G., Phar.
D., professor of microscopy; Willis G. Hickman, professor
of pharmaceutical jurisprudence ; Asa B. Lemon, Phar. D.,
professor of materia medica and instructor in the phar-
maceutical laboratory ; Lee W. Miller, Ph. G., instructor in
commercial pharmacy ; Ray M. Stanley, Ph. G., LL. B., in-
structor in commercial pharmacy ; Ernest G. Merritt, M. S.,
instructor in physics.
The Analytical Chemistry Faculty in 1916-17 was as
follows : Willis G. Gregory, M. D., Ph. G., dean ; Albert P.
Sy, M. S., Ph. D., professor of chemistry and German ;
Richard F. Morgan, Ph. G., Phar. D., professor of miner-
alogy and lithology ; William V. Irons, Ph. D., assistant pro-
fessor of chemistry ; P. Frederick Piper, B. S., professor of
geology ; William F. Jacobs, M. D., professor of bacter-
iology; Ernest G. Merritt, M.S., professor of physics;
Alfred Rothmann, professor of French; A. H. Hopkins,
B. A., instructor in mechanical drawing.
As has been indicated, the first committee to report on
the feasibility of creating a department of liberal arts was
appointed by the Council in 1862. It was twenty-five years
later before the matter was again formally considered. In
36 A HISTOBT OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
1859 the University charter had been amended to permit
the establishment of a preparatory department, "a school
for the academic instruction of young men preparatory to
a collegiate education, and to provide therein, or in its-
academic department when founded, or both, for instruc-
tion in practical mechanical science, mining, engineering
and in the science of teaching." When the Council ap-
pointed a committee to consider whether or not it should
take advantage of this provision, the same committee was
directed to report on the more important creation of a col-
legiate department. The proposition before the committee
proved to be one to transfer a local commercial school of
good reputation and prospects into a department of liberal
arts under the University charter, and until endowment
was secured, to use the rooms and equipment of the school.
In December, 1888, the committee reported its findings,
without making any recommendations, and was delegated
to continue its investigation. Mr. Putnam seemed to voice-
the opinions of the Council by saying that while profes-
sional schools might exist on students ' fees, he did not think
it practicable to establish a full fledged academic depart-
ment with no better prospects in view. The committee was
finally dissolved in March, 1889.
Department of Veterinary Medicine.
The next department of the University to be established
was one which, although formally organized, never carried
on any instruction and the Faculty named have all passed
away. The existing Faculties had appointed a committee
to report to the Council upon the creation of a depart-
ment of veterinary medicine and at a meeting in July,
1887, the committee submitted its recommendations. For
some years there was an independent veterinary school
in Buffalo which had lapsed, owing to financial difficulties,
but the interest remained and the veterinarians of the city
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 37
united to convince the Council of the demand for expert
training. The Faculty, as suggested in the petition, was
to consist of Drs. Park, Pohlman (who was named dean),
-Stoddard, and Vandenbergh, with the assistance of prac-
ticing veterinarians and physicians. The Council confirmed
these nominations, but financial difficulties attending efforts
to secure subscriptions for a suitable building made neces-
sary the abandonment of the department.
At the same meeting, July 28, 1887, which created the
Paculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Park and Laurence
D. Rumsey were elected to the Council, beginning a mem-
bership in that body of twenty-seven and twenty-one years
respectively. They took the places of the late Dr. Roches-
ter and David Gray. T. Guilford Smith was also elected
to succeed John Wilkeson. In the Medical Faculty the
Council confirmed the nomination of Charles G. Stock-
ton as professor of the theory and practice of medicine,
the chair filled so long by Dr. Rochester. Dr. Stockton
had been professor of materia medica and therapeutics
in Niagara University, one of the members of whose
Faculty, while congratulating the University on the change,
rather vitiated his felicitations by adding, ' ' The only regret
I have is that he has got into such bad company. ' '
Dr. Stockton is now the senior in point of actual teaching
service in the Medical Faculty, to which his reputation and
ability as teacher and author are an invaluable asset.
The Neiv Medical Building.
During all these years the work of the University was
rendered less effective than the quality of the teaching
<3ould warrant, by the increasingly inadequate facilities of
the old building. The Virginia-street structure was in
1889 fifty years old. Built in days when medical instruc-
tion necessitated but a few months for satisfactory comple-
tion, it now accommodated not only medical students spend-
38 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
ing a three-year course in the building, but a rapidly grow-
ing number of pharmacy students as well.
Dr. Park brought the material needs of the College to
the attention of the public in a vivid way. Without osten-
tation he let it become known that he had received and
was considering an urgent and attractive invitation to
return to Chicago, there to occupy what Chicago friends
termed "the finest place in America today" — the chair of
surgery at Rush Medical College. There seemed but one
means of keeping him in Buffalo — by proving to him that
the public would appreciate his declination of the call to
the extent of erecting a new building for the University.
This implied condition put the issue squarely. From the
beginning the Council was enthusiastic. At the annual
meeting of 1889 Dr. Park, speaking for the Faculty, re-
minded the Councilors of recent gifts of from $500,000 to
$1,000,000 made to medical schools in other cities. The
Buffalo school, he knew, was as worthy as any of these and
its needs were greater. He suggested that the present
college property be sold and a new lot bought on which a
better and larger building might be erected — a building
providing for the growth which he farsightedly prophesied.
He also spoke at some length of the devotion of the Faculty
and of the various claims of the College to a generous public
support.
Dr. Mann earnestly seconded Dr. Park's appeal. De-
scribing the cramped and inconvenient quarters at the
College, with the disheartening lack of facilities, he es-
pecially emphasized the need for greater accommodation
for clinical instruction. Vice-Chancellor Putnam, who pre-
sided, said that he considered the request laid before the
Council eminently just and proper and one to which a
liberal public should respond, and he desired to know
definitely whether the people of Buffalo cared seriously to
cultivate anything higher than its material interests. Mr.
A HISTOBY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 39
Keating moved that a committee of three be appointed to
report on the sale of the present grounds and the purchase
of a new lot, and Dr. Park, Mr. Gorham, and Mr. Keating
were appointed.
On the east side of Main Street, at what is now the cor-
ner of High Street, stood for many years the only dwelling
house now in existence with which Joseph Ellicott is
directly associated. In 1823 he had begun the erection of
this home with the idea of giving it on its completion to
his niece. He died, however, before it was completed and
it was inhabited for many years by Colonel Guy H. Good-
rich. The house originally stood in large grounds, cover-
ing the entire block between what are now High and Good-
rich streets, but in the course of time these grounds were
cut up into lots and sold, until the whole mansion was
hemmed in by modern dwellings, except on the High-street
side. The building was moved to Amherst Street in the
nineties and considerably enlarged. 16 This was the land
which the Council of the University decided to purchase
and utilize as the site for the new medical building.
The amount paid for the land was $22,275, probably a
fair figure in those days but certainly an excellent bargain
in view of the increased valuation of real estate since then.
There were many arguments in favor of this location, the
chief of which, of course, besides its central situation, was
its proximity to the Buffalo General Hospital, which has
always provided most of the clinical facilities of the Col-
lege. George Gary was the architect engaged for the new
building; and the price named was not to exceed $125,000.
A college building used for many different purposes must
satisfy such varying requirements and tastes that a great
many men have to be consulted in order to avoid almost
unanimous criticism. Several meetings of the full Medical
Faculty, numbering at that time a total of over thirty,
16 Buffalo Historical Society "Publications," XVI, 313.
40
were held for the purpose of furnishing the building com-
mittee with the requirements of their respective depart-
ments, which data were then given to the architect.
An extensive description of this building, so familiar to
all Buffalonians and to the medical profession in this part
of the country, is here unnecessary, but the final architect 7s
plans called for a building with an irregular front of 215
feet, 98 feet on the west side and 78 feet on the east side,
occupying in all a surface of 12,000 square feet. The
greater part of the building is of fire-proof construction,
the rest of so-called slow-burning construction. The design
was to supply the building with rooms of varying char-
acter, and the main amphitheatre, which, on account of the
contributions of the graduates towards equipping and fur-
nishing it, was named Alumni Hall, has a seating capacity
of 400. Two other lecture-rooms have a slightly smaller
capacity, while other recitation and lecture rooms are of
varying size. The entire building contains no plaster, no
partitions other than brick, and the only wood employed is
oak. The money for the erection of the building and the
purchase of the lot was raised for the greater part by popu-
lar subscription, the only important single contribution
being a legacy of $20,000 from the late Honorable Jonathan
Scoville. Franklin D. Locke drew Mr. Scoville 's will and
at the time urged him to make a bequest to the Medical
College, which was not then done. When he prepared a
codicil, however, he asked Mr. Locke to ascertain the exact
corporate name of the Medical College. He was answered
that it was the University of Buffalo. He replied by wire
that he wished the name of the "Medical College on Vir-
ginia Street." Mr. Locke wired in reply that it had been
given correctly and admitted that he was as surprised as
Mr. Scoville to learn that the Medical College was not an
independent institution. It took so many years for the
University idea to make headway over the idea of a cluster
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIFEESITY OF BUFFALO 41
•of independent schools. The old building and its site were
sold for $67,750 to the Buffalo Catholic Institute and this
money was devoted toward the erection of the new building.
The Department of Law.
The successful undertaking of the new building gave
added encouragement to those who believed that the Uni-
versity should be enlarged to meet the needs of as many
professions as would support an enlarged institution, and
within a few months of each other, Colleges of Law and
Dentistry were added. The Buffalo Law School, founded in
1887, had been affiliated for a time with Niagara University
but now desired to change its connection, and at a meeting
of the Faculty held on May 18, 1891, those present, Messrs.
Charles Daniels, dean and professor of constitutional law;
LeRoy Parker, vice-dean and professor of the law of con-
tracts and municipal law; George S. Wardwell, professor
-of the law of torts ; Carl T. Chester, professor of the laws of
marriage and divorce and special proceedings; Charles
Beckwith, professor of equity jurisprudence; George Clin-
ton, professor of maritime law and admiralty; Tracy C.
Becker, professor of criminal law and procedure and med-
ical jurisprudence ; and Adelbert Moot, professor of the law
of evidence, petitioned the Council to admit the Buffalo
Law School as a part of the University. The request was
granted without delay and Spencer Clinton was at the next
meeting elected to represent the Law Faculty in the Coun-
cil. The teachers who had previously served in the Buffalo
Law School were all confirmed in their former chairs as
the new professors of the Law Department and the Faculty
was finally constituted to include those who had signed the
request for affiliation (mentioned above) together with
Albion W. Tourgee, professor of legal ethics ; James Fraser
Oluck, professor of the law of corporations; John G. Mil-
iburn, professor of the theory of law codes and codifica-
42 -1 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
tions; Charles P. Norton, registrar and professor of the-
law and practice of civil actions ; and E. Corning Townsend,.
secretary-treasurer and professor of the law of domestic
relations.
The organizers of the School believed that instruction in
law could best be given by lawyers who were engaged in
the active practice of their profession. Says Mr. Norton
in his history of the Buffalo Law School published in The
Green Bag, October, 1889 : ' ' The alliance between the
courts and the Bar on one hand and the School on the
other, was the closer because the School instructors were
chosen from the four hundred members of the judiciary
and Bar of Buffalo. The Law School was in fact the enter-
prise of the Buffalo Bar, in the interest of the more
thorough and effective training of its own future members.
Five judges who were holding courts almost daily became
members of its faculty. Attorneys who had won reputation
as specialists in various branches gladly gave their time and
their services to it. The members of the Bar who were not
actively engaged in the Law School offered places in their
offices and the benefit of an older lawyer's supervision of
study to every student who would come." In this respect
the Law Department occupied an unusual position among
the schools -of the country, as the instruction thus secured
is eminently legal and above all, practical. The School so
organized and carried on continues to be impressed with the
character of its founders.
The first quarters, in 1887, of the Buffalo Law School
were located in the old Niagara University building on
Ellicott Street, behind the Public Library. During the
second year the work was carried on in the lecture rooms
of the Library. From the Library building, next to which
was then the courthouse with its splendid law library and
four courts of general jurisdiction, the School moved to the
southwest corner of Pearl and Church Streets. When the
A HISTOEY OF TEE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO &
Ellicott Square building was opened in 1896, the Depart-
ment, which had been steadily increasing in size, was moved
to the ninth floor of that building, where it remained until
the end of the school year of 1913, when it was transferred
to the third and fourth floors of the former Third National
Bank building, thus still remaining in proximity to the City
and County Hall and the City Court building, which consti-
tute the laboratories of the law student. After all these
peregrinations, the School is finally making at this time
(1917) a concerted effort to find permanent quarters. The
nucleus of a building fund has been secured by subscription
among its alumni and the attorneys of the city and the
purchase of a location on Eagle Street directly opposite the
City Hall is being actively projected. The School moved
into the building in the fall of 1917.
In arranging the studies of the School and completing
the scheme of organization, the founders were singularly
fortunate in being guided by men of great practical sagacity
and unusual administrative skill. Foremost among them
was the Hon. Charles Daniels, LL. D., for many years
judge of the Eighth Judicial District, who in spite of his
many judicial duties always made time for his class-room
work. This he permitted nothing to interrupt and even
used to adjourn court to hold lectures. Death removed the
honored dean in 1897. Pending the selection of a successor^
Mr. Moot until 1901 served as dean, he being the only mem-
ber of the original Faculty who still gives instruction.
Finally the services of Christopher G. Tiedeman, LL. D.r
were secured as dean and lecturer on elementary law, con-
stitutional law, negotiable instruments, and the law of real
property. He was a legal author of international reputa-
tion and his connection with the School promised greatly
for its future, but he was permitted to serve its interests
for only two years, because of his untimely death, which
occurred in August, 1903. Again Mr. Moot became acting
44 A H1STOEY OF THE UNIVEBSITY OF BUFFALO
dean and served until 1904, when Dr. Carlos C. Alden, for
many years a member of the Law Faculty of New York
University, and later counsel to Governor Hughes, was
Appointed to the office, and he has served as head of the
Department since that time. The judgment of those re-
sponsible for his selection has been amply confirmed, for
he has had most noteworthy success as teacher and lecturer
as well as in practice. Under his administration the School
extended its course from two to three years.
Those who have filled the position of registrar have also
contributed very largely to the success of the School.
Charles P. Norton, now Chancellor, was the first to fill this
position, and his connection with the Department continued
for many years. E. Corning Townsend, Alfred L. Becker,
and George D. Crofts, who is the present incumbent, were
Mr. Norton's successors. Among his other services to the
School, Mr. Crofts has given much time and attention to
the building up and classification of the library, which has
become a very valuable one. Over $1,000 is spent each
year for its increase and maintenance, the money being
secured by a payment of $10 from each student. It was
purchased in the first instance by a fund given by thirty-
six of the most prominent lawyers and business men of the
city.
The Faculty in 1916-17 was composed of the following:
Carlos C. Alden, LL. M., J. D., dean, and lecturer on
elementary law, the law of property equity, practice and
pleading ; Hon. Adelbert Moot, LL. B., lecturer on the law
of evidence ; Hon. Charles B. Wheeler, B. A., LL. B., LL. D.,
lecturer on the law of corporations ; Loran L. Lewis, M. A.,
LL. B., lecturer on the law of liens ; Hon. John Lord
O 'Brian, B. A., LL. B., LL. D., lecturer on the law of insur-
ance ; Fred D. Corey, LL. B., lecturer on public service
corporations ; Hon. Clinton T. Horton, B. A., LL. B., lec-
turer on law of negotiable instruments; Hon. George B.
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 45
Burd, LL. B., lecturer on constitutional law. In addition
there are fifteen lecturers.
The College of Dentistry.
The addition of the Law Department preceded the crea-
tion of the Department of Dentistry by only a few months,
and on May 30, 1892, on the motion of Dr. Park, who had
been active in the matter from the beginning, such a de-
partment was established with the following as the first
Faculty: William C. Barrett, Alfred P. Southwick, Her-
bert A. Birdsall, and Franklin E. Howard. These gentle-
men subsequently elected to their number George B. Snow.
A statement prepared by Chancellor Sprague explained
the steps leading up to this action, stating that for years
the University had had this step in contemplation in order
that its medical instruction might be complete in all its
branches.
With the completion of the new building on High Street
the obstacles preventing the addition of the Dental College
were removed, since the architect was especially instructed
to include space for such a school, and, continued the
Chancellor in his report to the Council, ' ' The western wing
of the building will, therefore, be devoted to the wants of
a complete dental school." For the first session of the
Dental Department there were forty-six matriculates and
the graduating class numbered five. One change in the
permanent Faculty occurred early in the first session. Pro •
fessor H. A. Birdsall, the youngest member and a man of
great promise, died in December, 1892. He was succeeded
by Dr. Eli H. Long, who is still on the Faculty. The classes
grew very rapidly in size from year to year and the neces-
sity for an adequately equipped dental school in this region
was clearly demonstrated. The growth was regarded as
phenomenal. Beginning with a class of forty-six in the
first session, four years later saw a registration of 222, and'
46 A HISTORY OF THE VNIFEESITT OF BUFFALO
ten years later the enrollment reached 261. Such a rapid
growth proved that the School must soon have a building
designed and furnished especially to meet its own needs.
Accordingly, plans were soon developed which led to the
erection of a three-story building on Goodrich Street,
adjoining the High-street property. This building, also
designed by George Gary, was erected in 1896 at a cost of
$36,000, and was first occupied during 1896-97, this being
the fifth session of the College. Even this building was
soon taxed to its capacity to accommodate the growing
School, so that it became necessary in 1902 to add a fourth
story. This done, the building stands today as one of the
first in the country in point of equipment and adaptation
to the needs of dental instruction.
It was recognized from the beginning that a large part
of the credit for the wise planning and efficient organiza-
tion, which constituted the foundation of the College's
success, was due to the first dean, Dr. Barrett, who died in
1903, having held the position of dean since the inception
of the College. Another distinct contribution to its early
success was the service rendered by Dr. Alfred P. South-
wick, who held the position of secretary and treasurer until
the time of his death, in 1898. Dr. Barrett was succeeded
as dean by Dr. George B. Snow, who served in that capacity
for nine years, a period which saw constant enlargement
and development. In 1912 Dr. Daniel H. Squire, a grad-
uate in the first class to receive degrees, who had served as
vice-dean during 1910 and 1911, became dean. The present
head, with his associates, has been markedly successful not
only in raising the scholastic standing of the College but
in inculcating such mutual cordiality between the Faculty
and students as to result in a very healthy growth of college
and university spirit. Indeed, the Dental College is often
the first to inaugurate and carry on the various projects
tending to bring the University before the public in an
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIFEESITY OF BUFFALO 47
advantageous light, and to provide a natural outlet for the
display of undergraduate activities.
In 1914 the College sustained the loss, on account of
removal to New York, of Dr. Leuinan M. Waugh, who had
been very successful as professor of special pathology.
Columbia University made him a member of its first Dental
Faculty. The Governing Faculty of Dentistry in 1916-17
comprised: Eli H. Long, M. D., professor of materia medica
and therapeutics ; Daniel H. Squire, D. D. S., dean of the
Faculty and professor of operative dentistry; Charles K.
Buell, D. D. S., secretary-treasurer and professor of crown
and bridge work and dental ceramics; Abram Hoffman,
D. D. S., registrar and professor of prosthetic dentistry and
orthodontia. In addition there were five other professors,
fourteen lecturers, and a clinical staff of nineteen.
Beginning with the session of 1917-18 the course of
dental instruction was increased from three to four years.
Teachers' College.
Five departments of the University had how been author-
ized, each of which, with the exception of that of veterinary
medicine, was fully justifying the hope of its founders.
The success of the next addition should not be adjudged by
the length of time during which it was in existence. No
department of the University has had more loyal students
and graduates than the Teachers' College, and without
exception they have remained anxious for its revival.
The purpose of the new school was, of course, in no sense
to duplicate the work of the normal schools, particularly
the excellent work done by the Buffalo State Normal
School, but to continue and develop the work they so ably
begin. One of the important functions of the normal
schools is to engender a thirst for a more exhaustive study
of pedagogy than they themselves can satisfy. The
Teachers' College was designed to meet the need thus
48 A HISTORY OF THE JJXIVEESITT OF BUFFALO
aroused, and the most important agency which it brought
to bear was the control of a practice school where the
theories propounded in the classroom received searching
laboratory tests of their worth.
In the year of the establishment of the College there was
but one other university in this country provided with a
well-equipped practice school. The school controlled by
the College, which has been known for many years as the
Franklin School, was and is well organized and fully
equipped. Dr. Frank M. McMurry added to his duties as
a member of the Pedagogical Faculty those of principal
of the Model School. In February, 1895, Dr. Stockton was
invited to explain to the Council the details of the pro-
posed School of Pedagogy, the result of which meeting was
to convince the Councilors of the desirability of adding
such a department. It was some months before the details
were finally worked out, but in April, 1895, the application
of those interested was formally presented by the late
Bryant B. Glenny and the petition granted, Mr. Glenny
being elected a member of the Council to represent the new
Department. William A. Rogers was chosen president of
the board of trustees ; William H. Gratwick, vice-president ;
William A. Douglas, secretary, and P. H. Griffin, treasurer.
Much effort was expended on the careful consideration of
those who should form the first Faculty. That the choices
finally made were worthy is shown by the way in which
all of them, without exception, have subsequently distin-
guished themselves. Frank M. McMurry, Ph. D., came
from the University of Illinois to become dean and pro-
fessor of pedagogics. On leaving Buffalo he was called to
Teachers' College, Columbia University, where he has con-
tinued his remarkable career as one of the foremost edu-
cators in the country. Herbert Gardiner Lord, M. A., was
made professor of philosophy, and also was called later to
Columbia in the same capacity; in April, 1917, he was
A HISTORY OF THE UNIFEESITY OF BUFFALO 49
made acting dean of Columbia College. Professor Lord
was one of the prime movers in the College, and its
success was very largely due to his enthusiasm, his per-
sonal charm, and his unusual ability as lecturer and teacher.
His mind Buffalonians found to be of the quality that eluci-
dates the most abstruse subjects in such a way that those
never before confronted by even the simplest problems of
philosophy could not but be attracted, and having been
attracted, led to pursue further and further the intricacies
of the subject. Michael V. O'Shea, who was called to be
professor of psychology and child study, has been, since
leaving Buffalo, the distinguished professor of education
at the University of Wisconsin. Woods Hutchinson, M. A.,
M. D., was professor of science. The late Ida C. Bender,
M. D., was instructor in primary education; James W.
Putnam, M. D., professor of neurology in the Medical De-
partment, was lecturer on physiological psychology, and
Natalie Mankell, M. D., at present instructor in mechanical
therapeutics in the Medical Department, was instructor in
gymnastics.
For two years the Teachers' College was accommodated
in the lecture rooms of the Public Library. The last year
of its existence was spent in the Real Estate Exchange, and
it used during its three years the school building on Park
Street as the Model School. In the last year of the Col-
lege's existence Francis G. Blair, LL. D., became principal
of the Franklin School; he is now State Superintendent of
Public Instruction in Illinois.
The hopes of the trustees and Faculty of the new College
were more than justified by the results achieved during its
lifetime. The attendance was much larger than had been
anticipated. The first year 94 students were enrolled : the
Second year, 159, such a large proportion of whom were
graduates of colleges or normal schools as to show them to
be of enoush maturity to allow a thorough study of educa-
50 A HISTOBY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
tional problems. The College granted only eight degrees
in all, five of which were that of Bachelor, one of Master,
and two of Doctor of Pedagogy. The curriculum of the
College embraced, more completely in the University than
at any other time up to 1913, many of the subjects taught
in a college of liberal arts ; hence the financial failure of the
enterprise brought grief not only to those interested in
pedagogical education, but to the faithful few who were
still working for the establishment of an arts department.
At a meeting of the Council on January 28, 1898, the
critical financial condition of the College was discussed,
Mr. Glenny stating that it could not continue beyond the
current year without permanent endowment. He men-
tioned the death of George Howard Lewis, a member of the
Council, as a serious blow to its projects. Professor Mc-
Murry agreed with Mr. Glenny that a permanent endow-
ment was indispensable, but the Council could foresee no
likelihood of such generosity on the part of any of its
friends, and so it reluctantly acquiesced in the judgment
of those responsible for the maintenance of the College,
and passed the motion that it be discontinued. Charles W.
Goodyear was elected a member of the Council to succeed
Mr. Lewis.
Gratwick Cancer Laboratory.
A second project even more important to the city than
the Teachers' College — because its usefulness was not con-
fined to the city — had only a little longer connection with
the University than the Teachers' College, but in its larger
life is still doing immeasurable good. That its work is
carried on with unassuming quietness and self-effacement
does not blind the public — whence its support comes — to
its merit.
In 1898, there was secured from the New York Legis-
lature the first appropriation ever made from public funds,
A HISIOET OF TEE UNIVEESIT7 OF BUFFALO 51
^either in this country or abroad, for the purpose of com-
bating the ravages of cancer. This money was appropriated
to the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo,
largely through the efforts of the late Dr. Roswell Park and
the late Edward H. Butler. Professor Park became direc-
tor of the Laboratory, with Dr. H. R. Gaylord as pathol-
ogist, G. H. A. Clowes, Ph. D., as biological chemist, and
Professor H. G. Matzinger as bacteriologist. For the first
three years the work was carried on in the College build-
ing, but in 1901, through the generosity of Mrs. W. H.
Gratwick and other friends of scientific research, the Grat-
wick Laboratory was erected — the first in the world built,
•equipped, and intended for this purpose. Dr. Gaylord was
made director and the work considerably expanded. The
third stage was reached in 1911, when Dr. Park, with the
co-operation of Senators Hill, Loomis .and Burd and of
Assemblyman LaReau, and with the constant aid of John
Lord O 'Brian, Ansley Wilcox, and others, succeeded in
raising the laboratory to the dignity of a State institution.
A number of citizens contributed toward the purchase of
the property, which was donated to the State to be utilized
as the site for a hospital, adjoining the Gratwick Labora-
tory on High Street. The building represents an outlay
on the part of the State of $140,000, the land being valued
,at $21,000. 17
The new hospital was dedicated on November 1, 1913,
with exercises held in Alumni Hall of the medical building.
Addresses were made by Dr. Park, chairman of the board
of trustees, Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, one of the trustees,
.and Dr. James Ewing, professor of pathology at the Cor-
nell Medical School.
17 Buffalo Express, November 2, 1913.
52 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
Amalgamation with Niagara University.
The Medical Department of Niagara University has been,
mentioned previously in this sketch, and the fact should
perhaps have been brought out that since 1883 the Uni-
versity of Buffalo had been stimulated to greater efforts in
its medical instruction by the active presence of another
school, including in its Faculty a considerable number of
the city's most prominent practitioners and ablest teachers.
In many ways indeed, particularly in its higher entrance
requirements, the school had pressed hard on the heels of
the older institution. The friendly rivalry was undoubtedly
as much of a help to both as of a detriment, but it grad-
ually came to be realized that there was an unnecessary
duplication of energy. Dr. Floyd S. Crego of the Niagara
Faculty and Dr. Stockton of the Buffalo Faculty were
those who conceived and helped most energetically to bring
about the union. In 1898, when the student enrollment at
Niagara was only 40, the time had come for amalgamation.
Most of the members of the Niagara Faculty were received
into the associate Faculty of the other, and among the
important accessions thus made were: the late Herman
Mynter, professor of clinical surgery; Earl P. Lothrop,
adjunct clinical professor of obstetrics; Henry C. Buswell,
adjunct professor of principles and practice of medicine;
the late Eugene A. Smith, adjunct professor of clinical
surgery ; W. Scott Renner, clinical professor of laryngology ;
Floyd S. Crego, professor of neurology ; Alfred E. Diehlr
adjunct clinical professor of dermatology ; the late Carlton
C. Frederick, clinical professor of gynecology, and the late
"Walter D. Greene, clinical professor of genito-urinary
diseases. Of the above, Doctors Buswell, Renner and Diehl
are still members of the Faculty.
This is perhaps an appropriate place to speak of the
growth of the Medical Alumni Association, with which
medical graduates of Niagara now become identified. The
A HISTOBY OF TEE UNIVEESITT OF BUFFALO 53
Constitution of the association specifies that all graduates
automatically become members at the time of graduation.
In January, 1875, under the leadership of the loyal younger
alumni, Edward N. Brush, '74; Alfred H. Briggs, '71;
Henry R. Hopkins, '67 ; and Peter "W. Van Peyma, '72, the
association was formally organized and held its forty-second
annual meeting during the Commencement week of 1917.
Niagara University had conferred the M. D. degree on 137
of its graduates, most of whom have since 1898 been actively
identified with the University of Buffalo Alumni Associa-
tion. This spirit of harmony goes to show the Niagarans'
approval of the amalgamation, the chief advantage of which
was to place at the disposal of one school all of the avail-
able clinical material of the city.
VII. THE LAST PHASE.
I.
"With the year 1902 we enter upon a more detailed con-
sideration of the steps leading up to the operation of the
Department of Liberal Arts. The outstanding dates in
this concluding chapter of our story include 1902, which
saw the election as Chancellor of "Wilson S. Bissell; 1904,
when a staff of lecturers was appointed to establish uni-
versity extension work by means of lectures in the subjects
in which they were proficient ; 1905, when Charles P. Nor-
ton was elected Vice-Chancellor, with the expectation that
he would give generously of his time and indefatigable
energy to arouse sentiment for an Arts Department; 1909,
when this sentiment first crystallized into action by pur-
chasing a site for the Greater University; 1913, when a
very modest beginning of work in the arts and sciences was
actually made; 1915, when the courses tentatively estab-
lished were given a home of their own through the gener-
osity of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union,
which wisely conditioned its gift by necessitating the Uni-
54 A EISTOBT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
versity's raising $100,000 as a first step towards endow-
ment; and lastly, 1916, when this condition was complied
with, with so much more added that it put the University
permanently upon a satisfactory financial foundation.
On October 10, 1902, Mr. Putnam resigned the office of
Chancellor, together with his membership in the Council
which he had held for so many years of devoted service,
and on April 25 of the next year he died. Wilson S. Bissell
was chosen his successor and George Gorham was made
Vice- Chancellor, but after he had held office for only a
year, Mr. Bissell 's untimely death at the age of 56 cut off
his masterful influence which promised so much in the-
direction of University enlargement. As Postmaster Gen-
eral in Mr. Cleveland's second Cabinet, he had shown him-
self possessed of unusual abilities as executive and organ-
izer, and these he was preparing to bring to bear on the-
problems confronting him in the University. Following
his death, Mr. Gorham served as acting Chancellor until
the election of Mr. Norton as Vice-Chancellor on April 10,
1905.
Those were years of alternate hope and disappointment,,
years when the faithful few met constantly with such in-
difference as to have effectually disheartened any group
less devoted. And it was indifference, of course, much
more than actual opposition — though there was some of
that — which it was hardest to face. Old prejudices and
unreasonable suspicions were revived by those who, for
various motives, were working against university en-
largement. It was alleged that the Medical College —
which had for so long, like nearly all the others in this
country, been a proprietary school — was inefficient and
existed only for the sake of adding to the incomes of the
few men in the permanent Faculty. For many years much
was made of this point ; yet for years the American Medical
Association has ranked the school in Class A. No criticism
A HISIOMY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 55
is easier to make than that of educational institutions. The
foundation of such criticism need not rest on a very firm
substratum of fact for it to be taken up and added to by
disgruntled former students and instructors, who contribute
their "inside" knowledge of conditions. Generally the im-
portance and number of this class are in inverse propor-
tion to the noise they make. The rest of the active oppo-
sition was supplied both by those who considered that the
city was sufficiently provided with educational facilities;
and to a lesser degree by those who considered that there
were already enough colleges in the country and in this
vicinity without the addition of still another, with resulting
duplication of energies. In this class were ranged a few
of the graduates of the older, wealthier universities quite
out of touch with the longing for higher opportunities
among Buffalo's high-school boys, who cannot afford to go
away to colleges, however near at hand they may be. Grad-
ually, however, these men came to realize that every large
city must have an opportunity of completely educating the
sons and daughters of its families at home. It is certainly
well for the American family to maintain an integrity as
complete as possible and covering as long a time as is exped-
ient. The sons and daughters go away from the early
hearthstone soon enough through the force of necessity.
Let us not be blind to the advantages which may accrue
to some students when thrown upon their own resources
away from home, but the universities will go henceforth
where the people and the pupils are to be found. The
people and the pupils are now, for better or for worse, in
the cities. Herein lies our weakness. Hundreds of students
are compelled to seek their college training away from
home. They leave their cities at their most impressionable
age of budding civic consciousness. The city loses touch
with the students whom it has fostered during ten or twelve
years. Absence from it for the next four years dulls the
56 A EISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
edge of city appreciation. While the city is recalled for
some sentimental reason, its civic possibility and duty do
not loom large in the imagination and affection of the
student. Absence does not make the civic heart grow
fonder. The problems of his city do not constitute his
problems. These students have lost in that asset in which
most Buffalonians have never been over distinguished —
civic pride. From the years of eighteen to twenty-two the
civic appetite has not been whetted.
The second great argument used to convince the doubters
has been the Americanizing influence of Buffalo's Univer-
sity. To Buffalo, more than to many other American cities,
have come thousands of Germans, Italians, Poles, -Kussians,
Hungarians — all ready to be moulded to high and great
national ends, or debased to bad ones, according as there
develop the noble traits of these nations, or there remain
the bitter dregs of bad traits evolved in the struggle for
national existence. To rise to better things — as many
of them deserve — than the mere labor of their hands,
these foreigners need leaders of their own race. The Polish
and the Italian colonies of Buffalo, numbering respectively
about 90,000 and 40,000, offer a vast field for educational
work, especially along lines of medicine and hygiene. Much
sickness can be prevented by right living, and their phy-
sicians are the greatest factors in this educational work.
They have the confidence of their people. Knowing the
causes, they can best offer remedies. They are active not
only in their medical work, but are taking leading parts in
the social and intellectual life of their people. They are
best fitted to be, and are, their natural leaders.
Especially significant is the enrollment in the Arts De-
partment of students either foreign-born or of foreign
parentage. In 1915-16, 13% of the regular students were
Italian; 6% Polish. All of them with but two exceptions
stood among the first tenth of the student body in scholar-
A HISTOET OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 57
ship. They have a definite purpose in coming to college,
from which none of the side issues of college life can deflect
.them. To them classroom work is both vocation and avoca-
tion. Italians, especially, will form a large proportion of
the membership in the future Buffalo Chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa.
Thus, in brief, run some of the arguments used for ten
.years — for it took that amount of time to debate the sub-
ject. To test the bridge and to see whether it was solid
enough to bear the weight of the heavy freight cars which
would some day be sent over it, a pilot-engine was first
dispatched. It made several trips, all highly successful,
which made it apparent that if the foundations were
strengthened the structure could bear considerably more
weight. In that sense, if in no other, the ensuing experi-
ment of the lectureships was valuable.
II.
The lectureships, naturally, were established to fill in
the gap until a full-fledged Arts College could be estab-
lished. They had their origin with a letter to Dr. Park
written March 12, 1904, by Professor James McGiffert of
Troy, a friend of his, who offered to endow a chair of
English literature in the University provided the Council
named as its incumbent the Rev. F. Hyatt Smith, M. A.
Of the latter 's ability Mr. McGiffert thought highly, so
much so that he proposed to establish the chair for Mr.
Smith by an annual payment, suggesting that he would
make the endowment permanent when the plan had proved
feasible. On September 12, 1904, the Council accepted the
offer and Mr. Smith was authorized immediately to begin
his lecture course. Originally a mere makeshift, designed
to preserve and crystallize the sentiment that was being
gradually aroused for an arts department, this professor-
ship, the first endowed chair in the University's history, no
58 A HISTOEY OF TEE UNIVEBSITY OF BUFFALO
doubt would have gone much beyond its original concep-
tion, so gratifying was the favor accorded it. The classes
met twice a week in the Y. M. C. A. building. Beginning
with an enrollment of 26, the registration soon reached 50.
The elasticity and informality of the methods used, coupled
with the fact that never before had teachers of the city
had an opportunity to secure college lectures of the kindr
account for their success. Extension lectures in other sub-
jects were soon added. Lewis Stockton gave a course on
government ; Harlow C. Curtiss, on American history ; and
Herbert P. Bissell, on German literature. The scholarly
attainments of such men as these were appreciated, and
their association with the University project gave impetus-
to the campaign now set on foot as a direct result of their
successful courses. The committee in charge was empow-
ered to add to its number a group representing the local
alumni of various universities. From that step originated
the interest of a little group of University Club members-
(Rev. Dr. A. V. V. Raymond, Principal Frank S. Fosdick,
Principal Daniel Upton, Richard H. Templeton, and Har-
vey D. Blakeslee, Jr.) who unostentatiously accomplished a.
vast amount of preliminary work in anticipation of a city-
wide campaign. From that amalgamation also dates the
active co-operation of such men as the late J. N. Larned and
John Lord O 'Brian, the latter of whom was elected to the
Council on May 3, 1904. On May 27, 1905, Mr. Larned, at a
meeting of the Associated College Alumni at the University
Club, delivered a notable address on "The University Ex-
tension Movement, ' ' which put the demand which he voiced
for a college of liberal arts on the highest plane — greater
than that of civic pride or of financial advantage — the-
need of supplying an answer to his question : ' ' Now, what
is there — aside from the moral strength that may be native
in him — what is there that will best protect a young man
from those narrowing and hardening tendencies in our
A HISTOET OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 5»
competitive organization of life? What will do most to
withhold him from the sordid and selfish careers that make
useless and mischievous citizens? What will do most to
keep social and civic and patriotic and altruistic feeling
alive in him? Why, assuredly, it is a full-fed mind, left
with no leanness or scantness in its growth. Assuredly it
is an early armoring of the man with fine tastes, high
thoughts, large views — too fine, too high, too large to be
reconcilable with an ignoble course in life. That, as I con-
ceive it, is what liberal education — liberal culture — means-
for our democracy. It holds the vitalizing leaven of aa
influence which democracy can spare no more than it
can spare the elementary under-culture of its common
schools. ' ' 18
On this same high plane the college campaign was waged
for the next twelve years, with accumulating success as the
people came to realize (as the people always will if the
future of their sons and daughters is put up to them with-
out frills or side-issues) the truth of the educational situa-
tion outlined to them. All this time, lending concrete
expression to the campaign, the lectures in English litera-
ture continued to be well attended up to the last class, on.
June 1, 1906. In May of that year the guarantor of the-
endowment suffered a financial loss which necessitated the
abandonment of the project.
While this blow to their hopes was naturally severer
those behind the movement did not let it discourage them-
for long, and indeed it showed how general was the feeling^
that had already been aroused. Stimulated by the fear
that what had been accomplished might be lost, several
groups of men and women came to the rescue in proportion
as their abilities and resources permitted. Some of the
professors in the Medical College, Drs, Gibson, Buschr
Bentz. and Hill, in lieu of a direct gift of money offered
18 Buffalo Historical Society "Publications," XIX, 87.
-60 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVEESITJ OF BUFFALO
their services as teachers in those branches which are
taught in a department of arts as well as of medicine. The
Buffalo City Federation of "Women's Clubs showed its con-
fidence in the outcome of the campaign by pledging itself
•to raise a scholarship of $2,000 for a college which did not
yet exist; and finally a group of teachers in the various
high schools offered their help in making an actual be-
ginning of the College, proposing to use temporary quar-
ters in the Y. M. C. A. building. They offered their serv-
ices as practically volunteer instructors, and it is interest-
ing to note that several of those who thus pledged their
help — Messrs. Goetz, Casassa, Rhodes, and Piper — subse-
quently became members of the College Faculty, while
«till retaining their positions in their high schools. The
petition was signed by the following: F. Hyatt Smith,
chairman; P. Frederick Piper, secretary; Principal Fred-
erick A. Vogt; Frederick C. Busch, M. D.; Frank H. Coff-
ran; Jay E. Stagg; G. E. Fuhrmann; Charles E. Rhodes;
Philip B. Goetz; Principal Frank. S. Fosdick; Herbert U.
Williams, M. D. ; Felix A. Casassa, and M. A. G. Meads.
This generous offer, however, did not meet with accept-
.ance. It was felt that the future prospects were too un-
•certain to permit the proposed committee to matriculate
students for a four-year course with no more adequate
.accommodations in view than the old (not the present)
Y. M. C. A. building. But now dawned at last upon the
Council the prospect of being able to secure the site which
was the first necessity for the permanent existence of the
College of Arts and Sciences. In February, 1907, Vice-
Chancellor Norton reported the possibility of the removal
•of the county almshouse into the country. He suggested
that no finer location could be secured which would ade-
quately allow for the future expansion of the University.
At first it was suggested that the University propose a
trade, that it should provide a farm which could be offered
A HISTOET OF THE UNiyEESITY OF BUFFALO 61
to the Supervisors as a fair exchange. But no farm was
available for such a purpose: none of the University's
friends seemed to have a few hundred acres lying fallow,
and consideration was narrowed to sites either within or
very close to the city limits.
III.
The almshouse property is partly within and partly out-
side the city, but much the larger portion, about 92 out of
the 106 acres secured, was county property. Accordingly,
the Board of Supervisors was the first body consulted.
By this time the advocates of the Greater University had
united on the desirability of the almshouse site. At the
beginning there had been some who, favoring a site nearer
the heart of the city, mentioned park property near the
Albright Art Gallery and the prospective home of the
Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. This site, with it&
proximity to two great agencies of instruction and culture,
had the obvious advantage of correlating civic institutions,
but was deemed too small for all the buildings of a great
university.
The 106 acres, on which have stood for about sixty years
the county almshouse and its annexes, comprise the highest
ground in the city. From the top of the stone quarry
included in the site, one can view, out over the west, a
striking combination of city and country. The busy Ni-
agara Falls Boulevard joins Main Street where the Uni-
versity property begins, and beyond the city line, still
bounding the campus, Main Street becomes the Williams-
ville road. On the eastern side, the Bailey-avenue street-
cars also run to the city line, adding to the accessibility of
the site. There fewer houses have been built, and the
ground is uneven, but one of the natural features of the
campus is an attractive pond toward the eastern boundary,,
fed by natural springs.
<62 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
In deeding away such a property the Supervisors were
putting in trust a rich legacy. It was not altogether an
ordinary commercial transaction. Property thus situated
has been estimated by dealers, at the time of the sale, to
be worth between $2,000 and $3.000 an acre, so that the
University came into possession, for the sum of $54,300,
of land certainly worth between $200,000 and $300,000.
Seldom can elected officials afford to be philanthropists, but
it was purely a consideration of the purposes to which the
land was to be put that actuated the Supervisors in placing
it at that figure. The name of Asher B. Emery, chairman
of the Board, is signed to the deed, and it was fortunate
that one of the members of the University Club committee
on the Greater University, Mr. Blakeslee, should be also a
member of the Board. The preliminary payment, of
455,000, on the purchase was made by a legacy from the
late E. Carleton Sprague, former Chancellor. The balance
of the price was raised altogether in small amounts, no
one subscription being over $1,000. While larger amounts
would not, probably, have been declined, the endeavor was
rather to impress the need of the proposed College on the
.great mass of average, middle-class people for whose chil-
dren it was peculiarly designed. Impressively they reacted.
Numerous subscriptions of one dollar and even less testified
to the widespread interest.
The day when the requisite amount was reported to the
Council as having been all raised, marked a personal com-
pliment for Mr. Norton which his months of unremitting
labor for the purchase had richly earned him. At the Com-
mencement exercises of 1909, Adelbert Moot, the speaker
of the day, told of the Council meeting the same morning,
stating that those in attendance decided that one of their
number was in a condition calling for immediate operation.
' ' Then and there Doctors Park, Mann, Cary, with the other
gentlemen assisting, removed from Mr. Norton the last
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 63
lingering Vice he had and gave to the University Chancellor
Norton." To complete the triumph of the day, that morn-
ing came word that Governor Hughes had signed the bill
providing for cancellation of all the stock of the University.
At last the old bugbear which had been revamped so many
times to frighten would-be friends was effectually put to
sleep; at last it was possible legally to refute what had
been really fiction , for many years — that the University
was a proprietary institution.
In the deed between the Supervisors and the University,
executed June 16, 1909, there is one clause which has acted
as a powerful incentive against undue delay: "If the
property herein conveyed has not been put to University
use within ten years of the date of the execution of this
deed, the County of Erie shall have the right to repurchase
the property aforesaid at the same price paid, with interest
at 5 per cent, from the date of such payment." If such a
calamity as the reversion of these 106 acres were allowed
to happen, it would probably mean a permanent end to the
Oreater University, perhaps even of the University as it
was in 1909 ; — for it has become increasingly evident, as
larger and larger gifts have been made in this country for
-endowment and research, that independent professional
schools can hardly exist without the advantages of a uni-
versity connection. As American medical schools become
fewer — but better — and their entrance requirements
stricter, only the fittest survive — whose students are pro-
vided for them in large part by those who have received
B. A. 's and B. S. 's from the same university. This has
been one of the greatest difficulties of the local Medical
College — especially after it had begun to require college
work for entrance; and that is why the Arts Department
•was started, primarily as a feeder for the freshman medical
•class. This is true to some extent of the other professional
schools of the University, so that it is not far out of the
64 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
way to say that the future of all the departments is in the-
last analysis bound up with that of the Arts Department,
Probably it will be some years before the Medical College
will require a college degree for entrance — desirable in.
most ways as that would be. Discussion of such a step-
leads back to a consideration of the class of students in the-
College, so many of whom cannot afford, even at home, to
spend four years in academic study in addition to five or
six in medical school and hospital. Even two often work
hardship.
Aside from that factor, however, there is the claim that,
especially in medicine, greater deftness in hand and brain
results from beginning special study at a younger age than
22. Then, too, the value of the Bachelor's degree varies
distinctly. A degree in itself signifies little in these days,
when America can "boast" of nearly a thousand degree-
giving institutions, and when there is quite as much differ-
ence in the value of a degree from different sources as in
the merits of the colleges themselves. Two years in Har-
vard may be almost the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree
in many a fresh-water college in states the Legislatures of
which have been liberal in granting charters. But surely,,
whether two or four years are required, the very fact that
some college work is necessary vindicates, more certainly
than any other one thing can, the outstanding value of a
college education for the professional man: the disciplined
mind is the best tool for doing any work.
IV.
The problems confronting the men engaged in the effort
for higher education in Buffalo were new to most of them,
and new to the city. They had as yet won only the first
phase of the struggle. They had convinced enough citi-
zens of the need of a college for the college some day to
be built ; but what kind of an institution was it to be ? Not
A EI8TOEY OF TEE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 65
the question of whether it was to be old-fashioned or new,
whether vocational studies and shop-work were to pre-
dominate over the classics — for the modern university
must present a judicious combination; but whether suffi-
cient funds could be secured to enable it to continue as a
privately endowed institution, or whether the city should
not share the expense. The necessary two millions for
permanent endowment did not seem likely to be forthcom-
ing before 1919, and in any event it seemed reasonable
that the city whose name the University carries far 1S)
should be asked to pay part of -the maintenance, for a
proper return. It was proposed that this return should
be in the nature of 300 scholarships. Such -a petition was
presented to the Board of Aldermen in the spring of 1911.
The sum of only $75,000 annually was asked for, in
return for these scholarships. But the opponents of the
University gathered in large numbers. At the hearings
in the City Hall they heckled the University delegates,
ridiculing them when they could not immediately answer
every complicated question about maintenance and future
funds, asking them to produce evidence to back up their
confidence in the future of the College, demanding the
names of those who were expected to contribute toward the
endowment. "Worst of all, the religious issue was injected.
One alderman had heard dark hints that in the writings of
one of the University Faculty were statements scandalously
derogatory to the Catholic Church. Picking up gingerly
Dr. Park's "History of Medicine," and turning to the
page where he had been told that such ammunition awaited
the fuse, he thundered out this quotation, among others,
from the preface, omitting to include any context or con-
necting matter: "Only when students of science emanci-
pated themselves from the prejudices and superstitions of
19 There are Buffalo graduates practising in Egypt, Belgian Conpo, China, Syria,
Japan, France, Hawaii, Porto Rico, besides in practically every State in the Union.
66 A EISTOE7 OF TEE UNIVEBSITY OF BUFFALO
the theologians did medicine make more than perceptible
progress. ' '
The second issue injected in order to becloud the situa-
tion was the question of municipal control. The original
contract had provided that the city should be represented
on the Council by the Mayor, Comptroller, and Corpora-
tion Counsel; but inasmuch as it was to be only partially
a municipal institution, the University Council felt that
such a representation was proportionate to the financial
share of the city in the enterprise. If the city had desired
to take over the whole University, in such a way as Cin-
cinnati has done, there would have been, of course, no
objection to absolute city control. But when the University
Council objected to entire city control, on the reasonable
ground that the city would be only supplying a fraction
of the expense, the opposition saw a second effectual means
of killing the whole scheme. The fact that it was legally
impossible, both under the existing University charter and
by the enabling act of 1909, thus to turn over control to
the city, was ignored; the Council was a "bunch of high-
brows" who would trust no one else with the control of
the people's University. Some of the newspaper stories at
the time were more than undignified — they were positively
Indecent in their misrepresentation. Many of the papers,
however, lent effective and intelligent support.
Such attacks it was inadvisable, if not impossible, to
refute. All the Council could do was to prepare a digni-
fied statement, on which they rested their case with all
open-minded citizens. After deprecating the religious
question which had arisen under a total — yet not, in all
cases, a wilful — misapprehension of their aims, the Coun-
cil dealt with the legal problem of city control, and con-
tinued :
There are also other compelling practical reasons why the Uni-
versity cannot be placed under city control. Your attention is respect-
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVEES1TY OF BUFFALO 67
fully called to the fact that the annual appropriation suggested in
the proposed contract is only a portion of the money which it will
be necessary to raise in order to help to equip and carry on the new
College. The University intends to use these funds so appropriated
solely for the purpose of obtaining as instructors a staff of scholars
and scientists of high rank. The contract will properly bind it so to
use such funds. For necessary buildings and their maintenance, addi-
tional instructors, and other purposeSj a further sum, amounting to
from $500,000 to $1,000,000, must be ultimately raised by the Uni-
versity. This money must be obtained from donations to be made
from time to time by private citizens in Buffalo and elsewhere. Of
this amount $250,000 should be raised at once for buildings, if the
contract is made. The fact that a college could be said to be under
city control would militate against these donations. Private citizens
would view the College as a purely municipal institution, would feel
no personal interest in it or responsibility for it, and would expect
the city to support it adequately. It is a fact that citizens rarely
give money to city institutions. Eightly or wrongly, politics is often
thought to be a factor in the management of city institutions. Scien-
tists and scholars of the first rank will not give up work elsewhere
and come to an institution where they think politics may control ; and
the same consideration would deter its citizens from making their
donations. The citizens of Buffalo want a first-class college or none;
and the best interests of the city itself demand that the new College
be a dignified and efficient institution of learning, entirely removed
from the perils incident to municipal control.
This city cannot afford to wait longer for higher education, such as
all large and many smaller cities now enjoy. We have had very
decisive public declarations to that effect. If any official thinks
otherwise, let him openly and squarely oppose us upon this simple
issue, and not obscure it by insincere artifice or false issue injected to
oppose the establishment of this College upon any terms whatever.
In our desire to remove all objections made to the contract proposed
by us, we therefore respectfully make the following requests:
(1) That your honorable body now show by individual vote of
its members that it is willing to enter into a suitable form of con-
tract with the University for the purposes specified in the enabling
act.
(2) That after such action, you enter into a properly drawn
contract to be negotiated immediately, and to be satisfactory to
the Council of the University as well as to yourselves, and if
68 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
deemed advisable that this contract so executed may be thereafter
submitted to a vote of the people for approval before it shall take
effect.
The present members of the University Council have no private
interests to exploit. The interests of the city can be protected by a
proper contract. We have been and are willing to agree that all
reasonable restrictions shall be put into the contract to guarantee the
proper and economical expenditure of any money to be paid by the
city in return for the free scholarships which the University agrees
to furnish.
If the present members of the Council, as citizens and taxpayers,
are not deemed representative of the community, they stand ready
to resign, so that their places may be filled by others to be chosen and
elected in the manner provided by the charter of the University. Our
only desire has been to place this city where it belongs in the matter
of education — to give to every young man and woman, Catholic or
Protestant, Jew or Gentile, an opportunity to obtain in Buffalo an
education that will fit them for life as well as any which today may
be obtained elsewhere by those who have the means to secure it. We
have inherited this trust from our predecessors, who were inspired by
the same ambition, and we will not cease in our efforts until we have
created such a college.
When the question of the city's willingness to enter into
a contract came to a vote in the Board of Aldermen, on
April 17, 1911, the proposed, or any other similar agree-
ment was voted down by fourteen to nine. The cause of
commission government received that day its first great
endorsement in Buffalo. Both candidates for Mayor in
the previous election had pledged their administration, if
elected, to do all in their power for the Greater University,
but the pledge seemed powerless against the reactionary
forces.
Y.
Two years passed after this defeat, a time apparently
of general apathy toward the movement. Recovery was
slow. Meantime the professional departments were exper-
iencing great increases in their enrollments. In 1913 the
freshman medical class consisted of 94. Important changes
A HISTOBY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 69
were taking place in administration, bringing into the
Council three new deans. Dr. Alden as the member-elect
from the Law Faculty took the place of Mr. Moot, who
had received the high honor of election to the State Board
of Regents. Dr. Daniel H. Squire succeeded, as dental
dean, Dr. Snow, who shortly thereafter removed to Cali-
fornia, where he still -keeps up a lively interest in the
College. Dr. Herbert U. "Williams, professor of pathology,
succeeded Dr. Mann as dean of the Medical College, and
to him is due a large share of the credit for the successful
inauguration, in the summer of 1913, of the courses in
arts and sciences. In the Medical Faculty Doctors Mann,
Long, and Busch resigned their chairs of obstetrics, materia
medica, and physiology respectively; and to succeed two
of them, teachers who had achieved reputations outside
Buffalo were called to the Faculty. Frederick H. Pratt,
M. A., M. D., of the Harvard Medical School, was made
professor of physiology, and Francis C. Goldsborough,
B. S., M. D., of Johns Hopkins University, became pro-
fessor of obstetrics. DeWitt H. Sherman, B. A., M. D.,
was made professor of materia medica. The retirement
of Dr. Frederick C. Busch as professor of physiology was
necessitated by ill health, and his untimely death in 1914
was a grevious loss alike to the medical and teaching pro-
fessions. In 1905 Dr. James A. Gibson had been elected
professor of anatomy, continuing a connection of many
years, and he was made secretary and treasurer of the
College in 1912, succeeding Dr. Long.iaa In the Dental
Faculty Dr. R. H. Hofheinz, now of Rochester, had re-
signed the chair of operative dentistry, being made pro-
fessor emeritus. He was succeeded by Dr. Squire, dean
since 1912. At the same time Dr. Charles K. Buell began
his membership in the Faculty, being made professor of
crown and bridge work and dental ceramics. The only
important change in the Faculty of Pharmacy was the
19a. Dr. Gibson died on October 4, 1917.
70 A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
election in 1913 of Dr. Eli H. Long as professor of toxi-
cology. In the Law School Hon. George B. Burd, Hon,
Clinton T. Horton, and Frederick D. Corey entered the
Faculty.
It has been previously remarked that the Medical Col-
lege has been for many years ranked in Class A by the
committee on medical education of- the American Medical
Association. Naturally one of the conditions of remain-
ing in that class has been a readiness to advance not only
the requirements for a degree but more especially those
for entrance. From that august body — whose decrees
are to 100,000 doctors supreme law — now came the ruling
that medical schools must require at least one preliminary
college year, including certain stated subjects, in order
to be approved. So here, all ready-made, was the beginning
of the Arts Department. On June 18, 1913 — an historic
date when its consequences are considered — the Council
met to discuss how best it could meet the new situation.
The Councilors were careful to deprecate any thought of
founding a college, for which there were no more funds
in sight now than before, and so the new departure was
christened Courses in Arts and Sciences. But in the back-
ground of their minds must have been the idea that the
enterprise was not to be wholly in favor of only the
Medical College. If it was received favorably by the
public — despite the meager resources available, totally
inadequate for a college — it would certainly encourage
them to develop the courses, if that were possible at the
end of the year. Accordingly, in addition to the purely
pre-medical courses offered — English, French, German,
chemistry, biology, physics — others were advertised where-
by a complete freshman year's work could be obtained in
the course leading to the B. S. degree. Such additional
courses were mathematics and mechanical drawing. A
committee consisting of the three senior deans, Doctors
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 71
"Williams, Gregory, and Alden, was appointed as a super-
visory body, which after a few months was changed to
included the fourth dean, Dr. Squire, and a member-elect,
Mr. Park, from the infant Faculty. For over a year this-
committee held frequent meetings to decide on the nature
of the courses and the personnel of the Faculty, until it
was discharged in 1915, when the conduct of the new
Department was left entirely in the hands of its Faculty.
This first Faculty of Arts and Sciences consisted of the
following: chemistry, Albert P. Sy, Ph.D., and Walter
M. Ralph, B. Chem. ; physics, M. Smith Thomas, A. C.r
and James Cadwell, B. A. ; biology, Lester B. Gary and
Rosa R. "Weigand ; mathematics, Wilfred H. Sherk, M. A. ;
English, Philip B. Goetz, B. A. ; French, Felix A. Casassa
and Julian Park, M. A. ; German, Wilhelm Oncken ; Latin,
Peter Gow, Jr., B. A. John 0. McCall, B. A., D. D. S., of
the Dental Faculty, had been made secretary in charge of
the courses, continuing until February of 1914, when Mr.
Park succeeded him.
On September 22, 1913, the various departments of the
University began their work for the year, and for the first
time opening exercises were held by all the schools in
common. Interest naturally centered on the registration
in the arts courses. In presiding at the joint exercises,.
Chancellor Norton reminded the Law alumni and students
that it was the twenty-fifth anniversay of the opening of
the Law School, which started its work in the Public
Library building just a quarter of a century ago to a day.
"At that time," he said, "as a member of the Law Faculty
I faced an entering class of eight good men and true, a
tiny nucleus which has developed into one of the best
schools of the country, its needs having grown so that this
year it requires three times the space it had last session.
Today, as the head of a greatly enlarged and almost com-
plete University, I have the fortune to face an entering
72 A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
class of no less than thirty-five, who are willing to try their
luck in our youngest department. ' ' 20
There were in addition twenty-six special students. Not
all of the thirty-five were pre-medical students. Six of
them entered the B. S. course, with the touching confi-
dence that Providence would provide the other three years,
or that, if they were transferred to other colleges, their
freshman year's work would be accredited. Strange to
say, it was. Cornell, Colgate, and even Harvard granted
the same privileges to students transferred from an utterly
unknown and untried institution as if they had come from
the oldest college in the land. Nothing could have been a
more welcome surprise than that kind of encouragement. It
came before the new courses had even been inspected by the
Regents. It was not until the second year was under way
that the State Department of Education approved even
the pre-medical year. In the fall of 1915 it approved the
entire freshman year as of standard college grade and
proposed to take similar action from year to year until the
full four-years' course was registered. In accordance with
this action, the sophomore year was accredited in the fall
of 3916.
It was obvious from the start, however, that not much
more than freshman subjects could be taught in the accom-
modations available. No money was at hand to hire rooms
outside of the University quarters as they then were. So
the office of the new "college" for some months consisted
of practically two desks in the librarian's room of the
medical building. For recitation rooms, both the medical
and dental buildings were requisitioned, but naturally the
needs of the arts classes were subordinated to the require-
ments of those departments. It became a common thing
for an instructor to find his class, which was scheduled for
a certain room, at the other end of the building. It was
20 Buffalo Express, September 23, 1913.
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 73
perfectly possible, before lie got to know his students'
faces, for him to walk into a room full of supposedly arts
students, to find blank expressions when he began to ex-
pound French or mathematics, and to discover that they
were medical or pharmacy or dental students.
Before the end of its first year the Greater University
suffered the loss of one of its most earnest champions — one
eager to advance its fame not only in ways pertaining to
his own profession but everywhere that its service was
needed. The Council, meeting the day after Dr. Park's
death, February 16, 1914, adopted the following resolu-
tion:
By the sudden death of Koswell Park, M. D., M. A., LL. D-, the
University of Buffalo loses far more than can adequately be expressed
in the words of a brief, formal appreciation, such as this tribute
of respect must be. It is not for us so much to measure Dr. Park's
high service in this community as a public-spirited citizen, as a
versatile yet profound toiler in scientific research, or as a writer
whose world-wide fame has conferred distinction upon the home of
his adoption, as to recognize and declare the great debt the University
of Buffalo owes him as its loyal and generous friend and as its
constant and tireless champion. He shared our vicissitudes and
aspirations for thirty years, and he lived to be able to say, as he
did to this Council twelve hours before his death, that he rejoiced in
the signs of an early consummation of the long-cherished hopes of
the University's steadfast friends.
The chair of surgery was not filled until 1917, when Dr.
Park's associate, Edgar R. McGuire, 1900, for several years
associate professor, was elected full professor.
Dr. Ernest Wende, also internationally known in scien-
tific circles, had died in 1911, and the University was
shortly to lose two other beloved members of its Faculty.
Dr. Nelson W. Wilson, '98, died in 1915, and Dr. Harry
Mead, '91, in 191 7. Both these teachers, who were of about
the same age, had achieved much in their lifetime, but
much more was expected of them.
74 A HISIOET OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
VI.
In the summer of 1915 the system of governing the-
Medical College, practically the same as that which had
been in operation since the beginning, was completely
modified. Instead of an executive Faculty of few mem-
bers, with rather autocratic powers of nomination to the
general Faculty, the new organization vested the control
in two bodies, an administrative board of ten members,
nominated by the Faculty for appointment by the Council,
and a board of instruction of twelve, consisting of the
heads of the teaching departments or their delegates. A
number of standing committees, appointed by the Faculty,
has charge of various divisions of work. Voting power in
the Faculty is held by all teachers, with the exception of
instructors and assistants of less than five years' service. 21
This system of government, which has the support of the
entire Faculty, utilizes the best features of various other
institutions and incorporates a number of original ideas,
the credit for the greater part of which belongs to Pro-
fessor Pratt. The plan in general is designed to place
responsibility for the affairs of the College upon the
teaching staff, which delegates power to its administrative
bodies and through these to their officers. In the interest
of a compact University organization, ultimate decision
rests, however, with the Council as trustees.
The first administrative board under the new regime
was composed of : Thomas H. McKee, Herbert U. Williams,.
Charles G. Stockton, Grover W. Wende, Francis C. Golds*
borough, DeWitt H. Sherman, James A. Gibson, Nelson G.
Russell, Frederick H. Pratt, and Arthur G. Bennett. The
board is renewed every five years by two annual retire-
ments and elections.
21 By-laws and rules governing the Department of Medicine, published April,.
1916.
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 75
The first board of instruction consisted of: DeLancey
Rochester, associate professor of medicine, chairman ; John
L. Butsch, assistant professor of pharmacology, secretary ;
Herbert U. Williams, professor of pathology and bacteri-
ology; Albert P. Sy, professor of chemistry; James W.
Putnam, professor of neurology; W. Ward Plummer,
assistant professor of orthopedics; Grover W. Wende. pro-
fessor of dermatology; Arthur G. Bennett, assistant pro-
fessor of ophthalmology; James A. Gibson, professor of
anatomy; Charles A. Bentz, associate in embryology;
Frederick H. Pratt, professor of physiology; and Francis
C. Goldsborough, professor of obstetrics.
At the same time, Dr. Williams retired as dean in order
to devote more time to his teaching work, and his place
was taken by Dr. Thomas H. McKee, '98, who entered
thoroughly into the spirit of the new regime. In the
Dental Faculty Dr. Abram Hoffman was elected professor
of prosthetic dentistry, Dr. John 0. McC'all, professor of
chemistry (transferred in 1917 to the professorship of oral
hygiene), and Dr, Thomas 0. Hicks, professor of histology
and embryology.
A significant addition to the Council membership also
took place. In November, 1914, the Arts Faculty, feeling
that there was no one member of the Council qualified by
intimate association to represent it as the other Facul-
ties were represented, petitioned for permission to elect a
delegate. The request was promptly and adequately an-
swered in the election of Philip Becker Goetz, who, how-
ever, became a member at large. This was because, if he
had come in as a member-elect from the Arts Faculty,
recognition might thereby have been extended as a College
— which for the time being the desire was to avoid.
76 A HISTOET OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
VII.
But the new enterprise was all unconsciously impress-
ing its needs upon the community. Some of those who
recognized its worth and realized the poverty of its re-
sources were members of an organization which for nearly
thirty years had done work for women of inestimable value
along educational and social lines. This work was carried on
in a substantial and handsome four-story building of brick
and stone at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Niagara
Square. There the "Women's Educational and Industrial
Union, at first doing pioneer work, gradually saw its pur-
poses shared by other organizations with similar aims. The
efficiency of the Public Library, the Young Women's
Christian Association, the Legal Aid Bureau, and other
kindred bodies, together with the increased scope of the
Charity Organization Society, meant duplication of energy
if an organization with the Union's limited funds should
continue to do their work. First in the field in many of
these activities, the Women's Union saw itself gradually,
though still doing excellent work, pushed to one side by
wealthier societies, which owed their success, in some cases,
to their imitation of the Union 's methods. At the last full
meeting of the Union, January 28, 1915, the practical side
of the matter was presented in spirited fashion by Mrs.
Henry S. Madden, who pointed out that any business which
was annually going deeper into debt furnished its own best
argument for discontinuing. She added that although this
failure was not prompting the gift of the building or
detracting from its altruistic spirit, the women must realize
that they had no right to appeal for funds for work which
was not being done.
The proposition of the gift was enthusiastically greeted.
Said one newspaper: "Let the example be followed by the
men of Buffalo, who need not be ashamed here to acknowl-
edge the leadership of public-spirited women who have so
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 77
effectively pointed the way. May the new College of Arts
and Sciences be a fitting monument to Buffalo woman-
hood!"22
Of the conditions of the gift the most important proved
to be a very fortunate proviso. It was, that within one
year — on or before February 22, 1916, the University was
to raise $100,000 for the endowment of a College of Arts
and Sciences. The University was further to assume the
current liabilities of the Union, noi exceeding $6,000, and
was to maintain annually three free scholarships for
women. These scholarships are known as the Women's
Educational and Industrial Union scholarship, the Found-
ers' scholarship, and the Fiske scholarship of household
arts. The Union's building was to be known thereafter
as Townsend Hall, in honor of Mrs. George "W. Townsend,
founder and long-time president of the Union. If the
property on Niagara Square is ever sold, another building
for the same purpose must be erected and given the same
name.
University Day (February 22) of 1915 was celebrated
as if the gift was practically assured. The speaker of the
day was Dr. Charles F. Thwing, president of Western Re-
serve University, and Mrs. Adelbert Moot spoke in behalf
of the Union. Briefly sketching its history, she mentioned
those to whom its success was due, saying that the founder,
Mrs. Townsend, was the only one of the original group
now present. "Still inspired by a devout and absorbing
passion for progress, she leads the way toward this noble
co-operation between Union and University. Dear to us
is the past of the Women's Union, with all its cherished
memories, and equally dear to us shall be the future of the
College of Arts and Sciences. With this gift go all our
confidence and prayers that genuine, molding, humanizing
22 Buffalo Commercial, January 29, 1915.
78 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
culture will rise above the horizon and dignify the human
life of our city."23
Visibly affected, but despite her age speaking in clear
tones which more than once rang out inspiringly, Mrs.
Townsend formally presented the building of the Union to
Chancellor Norton, saying as she concluded: "As I pass
this trust deed in behalf of the "Women's Educational and
Industrial Union to the University of Buffalo, I would pay
grateful tribute to the three or four former presidents who
followed me (only one is absent today) — Mrs. Henry C.
Fiske, Mrs. Thomas B. Reading, Mrs. Adelbert Moot, and
Mrs. Henry "Wertimer. I would emphasize the fact that
we are not giving up Union ideals — many of them have
been realized ; the Union has always stood for higher educa-
tion. ' ' 24 Mrs. Townsend lived long enough to see the Uni-
versity take permanent possession of the building named
for her ; then, in 1916, passed to her rest.
Some other gifts were announced on that memorable
occasion, which came as surprises. The "Women's Investi-
gating Club contributed a scholarship for girls of the value
of $2,000, and Mrs. John Miller Horton announced the
donation of the Pascal Paoli Pratt scholarship, of a like
amount.
On March 15th the new Department (for the Council
had now formally given it that designation) moved to its
new quarters, and there was another celebration. This
time the auditorium in Townsend Hall, with a seating
capacity of 600, was used for the exercises, which brought
together a number of men prominent for their interest in
educational matters. The students taking work in the new
building now numbered in this, the second year of the
Department, ninety, who found that the building was
easily adapted to the activities of a college. This was on
23 Buffalo Express, February 23, 1915.
24 Ibid.
A HISTOEY OF THE UN1VEESITY OF BUFFALO 79
account of the largely educational work of the Union. The
classrooms are large and of varying sizes ; laboratories were
•equipped, and a reference library begun in the Kipley
Memorial Library room.
From almost entirely a pre-medical course the Depart-
ment had already grown so as to include a number of sub-
jects of sophomore grade. Mr. Goetz had added a course
in Shakespeare, Mr. Sherk sophomore mathematics, and
Mr. Park, leaving the French altogether in Mr. Casassa's
iiands, offered the first of a number of courses in history.
C. Lee Shilliday, M. S., joined the Faculty from Cornell as
instructor in biology.
For the third year the increased accommodations made
it possible to enlarge even further the scope of the work.
Additions to the Faculty included Susan F. Chase, Pd. D.,
in psychology, and Francesco E. DiBartolo, B. A., in
Italian; while other subjects added were German literature,
hygiene, nature study, English poets of the nineteenth cen-
tury, United States and South American history, and
further advanced work in chemistry and mathematics. The
matriculation in September, 1915, showed a total of 205,
many of whom enrolled still without any definite assur-
ance that they could be granted a degree in arts or science
in due time. Most of the special students have been
teachers in the city's high or grade schools, who avail
themselves of this opportunity (which they never had
prior to the establishment of the College) to secure ad-
vanced work either in the subjects which they teach or for
its cultural advantage. It will be some years before many
of them will have been able to secure sufficient credits for
a degree, but the College has made every allowance for
these public-spirited teachers, who sacrifice much time,
money, and convenience to increase their usefulness to
the city and their own mental resources. The subjects
most popular with them are taught at hours when they can
80 A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
attend, and they enroll in the same classes as the regular
students.
VIII.
To attempt any further detailed survey of the develop-
ment of the incipient College would occupy relatively
undue space. And yet its first four years, with which this
account closes, are as momentous as the first years of any
great educational movement. They lack, to be sure, the
romance of the origins of such a college as Williams —
whose founder was a military hero, dying in the midst of
victory and leaving all his property to perpetuate his name ;
and they lack the continual excitement of such a phenom-
enal growth as that of the University of Chicago, where,
inside of twenty-five years, "every year saw established a
new journal, a new department, a new college, or a new
school."25 It may well be repeated that no group of men
bent on conferring untold benefits upon their city ever met
with such discouragement. "Do not tie yourself up with
such a scheme," was the advice given to more than one
member of the Faculty.
But when their vindication came, it was complete. At
the time of the Women's Union gift the country had not
yet recovered from the first uncertainty caused by the great
war. War orders had not yet brought on the subsequent
wave of prosperity. So the raising, in 1915, of the $100,000
necessary for the permanent possession of Townsend Hall
seemed a formidable obstacle. Time wore on, and nothing
apparently was being done. University Day of next year
— the time limit allowed — was actually at hand before it
was known that the building was secured. But the actual
gifts then made and promised so far exceeded expectations
that many eyes grew dim, many hearts beat faster, and
even the frequent applause died down as the realization
25 T. W. Goodspeed, "History of the University of Chicago," p. 472.
SEYMOUR H. KNOX.
A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO 81
of what such generosity would mean to the community
came home to those who had worked under so many dis-
couragements for such a culmination. Gifts aggregating
a greater total than have ever been given for educational
purposes in Buffalo were announced at the exercises of
February 22, 1916, by the Rev. Dr. Andrew V. V. Ray-
mond, in behalf of the Council. His report included a
reading of the following letter :
BUFFALO, February 16, 1916.
DEAR DR. EAYMOND: My children and myself are desirous of
creating some memorial in memory of my late husband, Seymour H-
Knox, and after careful consideration have concluded that the thing
of most vital interest to the City of Buffalo and its people is the
University of Buffalo, and we can think of no finer purpose in creat-
ing a memorial in memory of Mr. Knox than to be permitted to
assist in the upbuilding and development of an institution of learn-
ing such as the City of Buffalo should possess.
It is our desire to create an endowment fund for the University
of Buffalo to be known as the Seymour H. Knox Foundation, the
principal of which, together with other gifts which may from time
to time be made to the Foundation, shall be held intact and the
income used for the support and maintenance of a department of
liberal arts and sciences in the University of Buffalo.
In order that the University may take advantage of the generous
proposition of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in
reference to their property on Niagara Square, I beg to inform you
that I am prepared, upon request from the University and upon satis-
factory assurance that the other conditions of the proposition of the
Women's Union have been complied withj and that the University of
Buffalo will receive said sum and devote the same to the purposes
herein set forth, to deposit to the credit of the University of Buffalo
the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, which sum, together with
any other gifts which may from time to time be added to it, shall be
known as the Seymour H. Knox Foundation, which sum or sums shall
be held intact and the income used for the purpose aforesaid.
It is my hope that the fund hereinabove created shall by gifts from
myself and my children amount ultimately to half a million dollars,
and it is my present purpose to make a gift of $50,000 each year for
the next three years and to provide in my will for a further gift of
«2 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
$2^0,000 to said fund. Of course, I shall ask that proper provisions
be made governing the care and preservation of the property from
time to time constituting the Seymour H. Knox Foundation, and the
method of its investment and disposition.
With sincere thanks to you for presenting to us the opportunity
of assisting in the promotion of this splendid enterprise, believe me
Most sincerely yours,
MRS. SEYMOUB H. KNOX.
In submitting this letter, Dr. Raymond said in part:
It is scarcely necessary for me to state that this ultimate gift of
half a million dollars for endowment assures the establishment of the
College, for it is by endowment only that a modern college is main-
tained; so that, whatever our College may become in the future, it
will always rest upon the foundation laid by this gift, and bearing
the name of Seymour H. Knox. This name, which has stood for
years in this community for a clean private life, strict integrity,
strength of character, and business ability amounting to genius, has
added to it today a distinction that wealth alone cannot confer — the
distinction and honor expressed by the words "public benefactor,"
and so becomes a name that will always be honored in this city
of his residence and will live in the grateful regard of thousands
upon thousands who through generations to come will share in the
benefits made possible by this foundation.
But while endowment is doubtless the most imperative need of a
college and usually the most difficult thing to secure, there are other
needs which must be met before a college can be said to be fairly
established; and chief among these are buildings and equipment for
its work. An endowment cannot be diverted to these ends. Unless,
therefore, some adequate physical equipment can be provided our
College enterprise will be slow in developing. You see, therefore, the
necessity of providing for a building to be erected on the College site
within the limit of time fixed by the county, and consequently you
can appreciate all that it means for me to announce, as I now do,
the gift of a quarter of a million dollars for the erection of the first
or central building, the key of the whole group of buildings that will
ultimately crown University Hill. This central building is to bear the
name of Edmund Hayes Hall.
This gift, however, carries with it a condition for which I think
the University will always be grateful; namely, that in addition to
A HISTORY OF TEE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 83
It one million dollars be raised for the purposes of the College before
June 16, 1919. I am not informed whether or not the Seymour H.
Unox endowment fund may be counted toward this million dollars;
and really it does not matter, for now that this great enterprise which
has been talked about for so many years has been so splendidly begun,
we believe most confidently that the citizens of Buffalo will carry it
through to an equally splendid consummation.
The hour has struck. In this confident belief, the joint committee
•of which I have spoken will soon begin a city-wide campaign for a
million dollars, of which one-half at least shall be for endowment.
With a million dollars of endowment and three-quarters of a million
in buildings and equipment, the year 1919 will mark the complete
establishment of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University
of Buffalo, that for all the future shall be the crowning glory of the
Queen City of the Lakes. But whatever the future may have in
store, nothing will ever dim the lustre of the three names we honor
today — Seymour H. Knox, Edmund Hayes, and the Women's Educa-
tional and Industrial Union.
It remains but to pick up some scattered threads — for
many factors which enter into the life of a university have
been, for the sake of continuity, neglected in the previous
pages. But college life and customs have been unfortun-
ately absent to a great extent from the University of
Buffalo. Most of the students live at home, and the pro-
fessional studies of all of them leave them little time for
extra-curriculum activities. Nevertheless, athletics have
sporadically appeared. From about 1896 up to 1903 the
University was creditably represented by a football eleven,
which encountered teams from some of the largest colleges
in the East and middle "West. In the fall of 1915 athletics
were renewed, with increasing success until the spring of
1917, when the declaration of war forced a cancellation of
schedules. The University, like its sister institutions, is
well represented by young patriots in the Army, Navy, and
National Guard. Publications have included The Iris,
published annually from 1897 to 1907, and a monthly, The
University Bison, which began in March, 1913, and has
84 A HISIOBY OF THE UNIVEESITY OF BUFFALO
since prospered, being originally conducted partly to keep
the general public in touch with the Greater University
movement. Musical interests now comprise not only a glee
club but a band and an orchestra. The University branch
of the Young Men's Christian Association is busy enough ta
warrant the services of a graduate secretary, giving most
of his time to the students. For some years this secretary
was Raymond F. Rope, who, however, in the summer of
1917 left Buffalo for China.
If it is not an imposing array of undergraduate activi-
ties, the explanation is — at least in part — creditable ; the
students come to work, and realize that they have frittered
away sufficient time already in the schools or colleges from
which they have come to the University. Each Depart-
ment has its fraternities, which not only solve the prob-
lem of a college home for the out-of-town students but
invariably have for their aims a desire to increase their
members' studiousness and mental resources in their own
profession. This may not be the most important purpose
of all of them, but at least it enters into their objects suffi-
ciently to win for the Buffalo fraternities respect as well
as tolerance.
For years, as was natural, the alumni confined what
interest they took in the University to their own depart-
ment. But the departmental alumni associations were all
active and attracted to their reunions a satisfactory num-
ber of the old students. This, while good in its way, was
narrowing; all these graduates received their degrees not
from a department but from the University. To secure the
interest and active co-operation of the alumni in the Uni-
versity as a whole was a task which, never having been
systematically attempted before 1915, called for the most
persistent energy on the part of those whose inspiration
was: "The loyalty of the alumni to Alma Mater is the
greatest moral asset of the University." On February 22,
A HISTOEY OF TEE VNIVEBSITY OF BUFFALO 85
1915, after much preliminary work the Federated Alumni
Association was founded, with every graduate ipso facto
an associate member. The members are the departmental
alumni societies, five in number, each of which elects three
members, the resulting fifteen forming the House of Dele-
gates; they in turn elect the officers of the association. It
is a workable form of organization, and treats every de-
partment equitably in rotation, the president being ipso
facto the president of each departmental association, tak-
ing them in the order of the founding of the department.
The association has held three well-attended dinners on
the evening of each University Day, and has been respon-
sible for the organization of district branch associations
wherever there are enough graduates to justify their exist-
ence. In this way branch associations have been formed
for the Rochester district, the central and northern New
York district, the Chautauqua district, southern New York
and northern Pennsylvania, and Greater New York. Each
organization holds a meeting and dinner at different times
of the year, at which the local alumni are largely repre-
sented.
He is indeed rash who in these days ventures to predict
the future in anything — least of all in education. He
may prophesy the future of the professional school with
more certainty than that of the college of arts, for the one
is a stepping-stone to a career more obviously than the
other. No college today has fully risen to the importance
or the privilege of its opportunity. No institution in the
land has a destiny richer in its potentiality than this four-
year old college ; no city in the Union is in greater need of
its ministrations. But in a community like Buffalo —
which, after all, is a new city, especially in the education
of its citizens — more and more people are, happily, coming
to realize that no city is great unless it rests the eye, feeds
the intellect, and leads its people out of the bondage of
86 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO
the commonplace. Buffalo has agencies which do one or
another of these things, but to do all three it must be
blessed with the moral reservoir of higher education. These
pages, then, miss the interpretation which it has been the-
effort to give them if they have not furnished the back-
ground for such a high resolve.
APPENDIX I
BENEFACTORS OF THE UNIVERSITY.*
1882 James P. White, M. D., medical library, bequest.
1891 George N. Burwell, M. D., medical library, bequest.
1891 Mrs. Esther A. Glenny, $2,500, for the Burwell Library Fund.
1891 Jonathan Scoville, $20,000, bequest; used toward the cost of
the new medical building.
1896 Devillo W. Harrington, M. D., '71, $2,000, for the Harrington-
Lectureship Fund, for lectures in the Medical College by
outside specialists.
1897 C. F. W. Boedecker, D. D. S., New York, museum of comparative
dental anatomy.
1897 E. Carleton Sprague, $5,000, bequest; used toward the purchase
of the North Main-street site.
1899 Elizabeth Gates, $5,000, bequest, to the Medical College.
1900 Mrs. William H. Gratwick, Sr., $25,000, for the Gratwick Cancer
Laboratory.
1902 Charles Van Bergen, M. D., a sum to furnish the physiological
and pharmacological laboratories in the medical building.
1905 George Gorham, $1,000, bequest, to the Medical College.
1909 Buffalo City Federation of Women's Clubs, $2,000, for the
Katherine Pratt Horton scholarship in the College of Arts.
1913 Charles A. Eing, M. D., '78, $500, bequest, to the Medical
College.
1914 Hamilton Ward, $2,000, for the maintenance of the College of
Arts.
1914 Eoswell Park, M. D., medical library, bequest.
1915 Women's Educational and Industrial Union, gift of their
building.
* This list does not include most of the contributors (1) to the medical building-
on High Street, (2) to the purchase of the North Main Street site, or (3) to the
library of the Law School. Space would not suffice to enumerate all these benefactors.
A HISTOEY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO 87
1915 Women's Investigating Club, $2,000, for a scholarship.
1915 Henry A. Richmond, $3,550, bequest, for the College of Arts.
1915 Irving M. Snow, M. D., '81, $2,000, for the Medical College.
1915 Mrs. John Miller Horton, $2,000, for the Pascal Paoli Pratt
scholarship in the College of Arts.
1916-1919 Mrs. Seymour H. Knox, Seymour H. Knox, Jr., and Mrs.
Frank H. Goodyear, $250,000, for the endowment of the
College of Arts.
1916 Edmund Hayes, $250,000 for the first building of the College of
Arts, conditional on the raising of $1,000,000.
1917 Clara A. March, M. D., '07, $2,000, as a loan fund for students
in the Colleges of Medicine and Chemistry.
1917 Women's Educational and Industrial Union, $3,000, to be known
as the Cora Bullymore Fund, for the purchase of books for
the library of the College of Arts.
APPENDIX II
STATISTICS OP THE UNIVERSITY, 1916-17
Alumni Number Years
Department Organized of Faculty Students in Course
Medicine 1875 107 206 4
Pharmacy 1889 13 120 2-3
Law 1914 24 147 3
Dentistry 1900 42 285 4
Analytical Chemistry 1914 12 57 3
Arts and Sciences 21 239 5
Totals 219 1,054
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond. CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
.2-month loans may be renewed by c
be recharged by bringing
recharges may be made 4
days prior to due
__————
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
>T.
ty of California
rkeley
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11